Lover's Key, Florida

Lover's Key, Florida
I WILL FIND OTHER SEAS.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

ATTRACTIVE OPPOSITES

I enjoyed my visit in Colorado.  My heart still aches a bit when I remember how disappointed my grandson was in his performance at the track meet he participated in.  He's in grade seven, such a vulnerable time of finding out who we are and where we fit in the scheme of things.

My flight home last night was uneventful until I realized that I hadn't remembered to remember exactly where I parked my car in the parking garage.  It didn't do me much good to remember that somebody somewhere within  the past few months warned me that part of the grief process is a lack of focus and paying attention to details when I was wandering about the parking ramp at midnight feeling fairly confident that that there was a red 2 on the wall near where my car was parked.  That is, until I discovered that there were several walls with red 2's on them.  The day before I had stubbed my toe on chair, and it hurt.  After wandering about for a while, I realized that, just as if I were lost in a forest, I had walked in a circle.  I stopped to consider what to do next, and, lo and behold, I saw my car one row away.  This was one probably the first time since Gwen's death that I didn't wish she were with me.  It would not have been a pretty scene.  She had a keen sense of direction, whereas mine pretty much stops after Up, Down, Left and Right.  On the other hand, she, in all likelihood, would have remembered where the car was parked.  Her presence was needed more than ever.  Anyway, it was late by time I drove to Ann Arbor, and had to face one more challenge--walking into the empty house.

Today, while at the gym, I got to thinking about what a difference it would have made if in my younger years I had access to the kind of training equipment I now use routinely.  That line of thinking got me to thinking about what an athletic person Gwen was, and, although I played at sports, I wasn't nearly the disciplined and accomplished athlete as she.  As I pursued that line of thinking a cute little poem began to form in my mind.  Later in the day a friend sent me an e-mail message with a picture of the prom I attended  in 1955.  Bashful and shy then, my friends arranged for me to go with a young woman who was a minister's daughter.  Not that there's anything wrong with minister's daughters, it's just that I was Catholic and she was protestant--not a good thing back then.  How did I get sidetracked?

ATTRACTIVE OPPOSITES

They were such opposites
in most ways.

She, athletic and beautiful,
queen of homecoming,
cheerleader captain,
honor student always
admired by all who knew her.

He, a skinny farm boy,
liked sports
an arranged prom date
barely made the top fifth of his class,
anonymous to all but a few.

Yet, they found each other,
fell deeply in love—
she took off his rough edges,
he smoothed her sharp edges,
they made each other complete.
And, the world became a better place;
at least for the two of them.

John A. Bayerl, April 26, 2011

Your presence was needed more than ever last night, Dear, as it always is.





  

No comments: