13 November 2008

time since - six months

I crawled out of my sleeping bag on the morning of the 8th and unzipped the tent that was perched on a thin paradise of sea shells... our own "conchita" (shell) island. The day had been weighing on my mind, another day given a number to mark the passage of time. I was born on the 4th, double it to get to 8 the day my mother was gone, add one and you have 9, a personal anniversary that I mark utterly alone, a reminder of the ugliness of humanity, but also of resiliency. I wiggled my way out of the tent and audibly drew in my breath. The sun was brilliantly peeking over the horizon, a dazzling spectacle dancing on the aqua-green water. I thought of the words of Antonio, a fellow pilgrim on our voyage - "we are blessed to be here". I sat, still, on the beach and whispered, "mom" and that was all that needed to be said. The week before dad had moved into the new home, a beautiful gathering place, peaceful in its own right. The wind blowing gently down grandpa's mountain softly stroking this new "conchita". I heard in it's quiet whistling, "daughter".

3 comments:

Sara Jane said...
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ohleslie said...

Hi De--

Been thinking about you and wondering how things are progressing. We're working long days to get the house done and make conscientous appearances at our real jobs. We are living in my mother-in-law's basement. I joked to a friend that I hadn't cooked his lovely halibut yet because we were living in our car and didn't have a very good way to cook it. I was saving it for when we moved in. He showed up with his camping cooking gear and wanted to make us more comfortable in "our car." Terribly sweet, and a reminder that I need to be careful about my humor.

Time since. I wrote a poem about one of my children who had a very painful experience, and the poem talks about how we begin to think of our own histories in terms of "before pain" and "after pain" like BC and AD. I suppose your timeline works similarly.

I've been missing you and wishing things were more settled here. Been reading your blog and wishing I could write as well as you.

You are beautiful.

AnnDeO said...

Hey Leslie, thankyou for the comment. I am so wanting to finish the revisions on my paper and concentrate on the writing group. I am just slow and overwhelmed, but I will start participating soon. Keep me up to date on the house. It will be such a nice place with the way you think things through and such. Keep smiling. Oh, have you read TTW's new book mosaic - I have just browsed through it, but I like the title - finding beauty in a broken world. I have to tell you all about Mexico you would have loved it and the writing prompts are plentiful. Thanks for keeping in touch.