The Daily News
1 You know what is wonderful about my ride home each night?
2 The streets I must pass in order to get home.
3 Each night I must pass first Hamlet Court.
4 I then fly past Tambour Way, and proceed on by Minuet Drive.
5 This eventually leads me to Poetry Drive, which I take to finagle my way to my front doorstep.
6 It is an enchanting end to my day, each day.
7 If I told people this, they would certainly think I was making it all up.
8 But my rides home always ends in those passages.
9 For a guy who has been going through all the stuff I've been going through, you would think I was making this up. But life is all about passages.
10 But that's all true. It's like a Disney ride, each and every day.
11 The cynical out there will probably cringe, but I'm absolutely telling the truth.
12 It makes me smile.
13 Sort of like on Saturday.
14 As usual, I went up to visit my Dad, who somehow is still doing reasonably well.
15 I had health issues I needed to confront him with, but when I got there, he was chilling with my sister, watching Diehard 4. It was raining out, and I had just returned from a wake and a funeral on Thursday night and Friday.
16 I never felt more safe and comfortable.
17 I have some issues I needed to bring up with him, but the moment simply wasn't there. It seemed inappropriate. He doesn't follow his diet regimen, and I wanted to confront him about it, because his health is so delicate right now.
18 But I simply couldn't do it. I knew in my heart and soul that I needed to have "the talk", but something told me it could wait a few days.
19 Life does that.
20 My sister Linda was there, and all three of us got pulled into the movie, and the rain.
21 For once, it felt like we were who we have always been, and it was clearly evident that for one brief, shining moment, we could live through all the diets, talks, and boushit.
22 Interestingly, we always refill a hummingbird feeder that hangs out the window of the family room. My Mom, who passed away a coupla years ago, loved hummingbirds.
23 Bedridden in her final days, she drew pictures of the hummingbirds who came to visit her each day.
24 Among her other talents, my Mom was a sketch artist extraordinaire.
25 She always sketched beautiful things like women's faces, dresses, animals, and nearly anything. Even when she was young and beautiful she would do that, sometimes just as a hobby.
26 Some people knit. Others write songs, or sing.
27 Mom always sketched, just to have something to do, the same way we all doodle.
28 Her talent went unnoticed by most, because it was just a little thing, but her sketches always were right on target, and lovely.
29 She never mentioned it to anyone, nor really showed her sketches to people any more than you or I would show our doodles to anyone.
30 It was simply a small, beautiful thing that she did.
31 In her waning days, she sketched the hummingbirds who would come to the feeder outside her window.
32 I bought her a sketch/crafty kit for her birthday, or Christmas one of the later years; I truly don't recall which. She never really touched it, and I have no idea why. Yet she continued to sketch on small pads of paper.
33 And it was always beautiful, but nobody really ever acknowledged it. We have all doodled sometime, like maybe when we sit around on a rainy day, or talk on the telephone, but Mom's doodles were always remarkably artistic to me.
34 She never said a thing about them; she just did it the same way any of us do those little things.
35 And towards the end, she sketched hummingbirds.
36 My beautiful daughter Caitlin took notice of the hummingbird sketches and has decided that her wedding in July will include hummingbirds as a part of her sunset theme.
37 How lovely is that?
38 Anyway, on Saturday, I went up to visit Dad not for pleasure, but on a business trip. I had to let him know that he needed to keep a more vigilant watch on his diet, and a few other things. We had a few incidents in the past month that warranted a scolding, and I wasn't really ready to do that. It is important, really important.
39 When I got there, I saw my sister Linda and my Dad enjoying a movie, and the rain started up, and I knew immediately that the conversation could wait for another day.
40 Linda has watched over him pretty nicely anyway, and my other sister Gayle has been going up during the week. We also have professional help coming in five days a week, so it isn't that bad. He just wants to eat whatever he wants, and in his condition, he simply can't. We all try to monitor it, but he has reached the point where he doesn't want to cooperate with people telling him what he can and can't eat.
41 This is what happens to people as they begin to age. They don't want to be told what they can or cannot eat, and it often causes huge challenges to the rest of the family.
42 So I went in with an agenda, but somehow, the time simply wasn't right. He was fine, at least for the day, and we all settled in to watching movies and laughing and joking.
43 In my head, the moment could wait for another day or two. I sat down and decided that it was more important for him to enjoy a normal day with his kids.
44 Right in the middle of Diehard 4, it rained really hard, and hummingbirds from all over flew to the feeder in the family room window. I couldn't help but think that Mom was sending us signs that we had to enjoy one another, and that diets, hospitals, doctors, and all the rest needed to rest for yet another day.
45 I smiled, and we went on to listen to a baseball game, and then watch some Superman movie. We made all the usual jokes about how both Superman and Clark Kent had disappeared for five years, yet nobody suspected they were one and the same.
46 I chimed in with a lot of fun observations about the Man of Steel, and Dad kept chuckling, because I stayed clean with most of the observations.
47 That's not so easy to do with Superman, but it was utterly enchanting and absolutely fun.
48 The hummingbirds kept coming to the feeder in droves; the rain kept raining, and I knew that my Dad was loving a rainy afternoon with his children.
49 And for the first time in quite some time, I again felt like a child, like I was home again, and I loved it.
50 Sometimes, boy.
51 For the first time in years, I felt that I was home again, that all the strange quirks and twists in life had put me back to where I belonged.
52 Sometimes we just have to talk back to the world and tell it that it needs to slow down and leave us alone. What important to the world isn't necessarily important to us.
53 That happened on Saturday.
54 Dad had an enormous smile on his face when I had to go, and I had one right back for him and Linda.
55 And as I left, I swear that in the corner of my eye I saw a hummingbird give me a wave, all Disney, of course.
56 I'm going to believe it did. I went home smiling, past Hamlet Court, Tambour Way, Minuet Drive, and straight down Poetry Drive, and arrived home none the worse for the wear and tear. And my Dad had a great day with his children.
57 And I thought I would share that on this rainy Monday.
57 That's it. Have a great one.
58 Peace.
~H~
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