Rising before dawn, there are still four hours before the big games. Relaxing in bed watching The Jungle Book with her favourite guy, reserving pent up energy for the tournament.
Her grandchild is tucked in, after an evening laughing playing cards and watching Netflix; he’s resting up for a tournament tomorrow morning. How silent the place feels all of a sudden. She had not realized just how quiet her home was…lacking life without her children. One gets used to the quiet not realizing what one is missing sometimes.
Grief can be quite mysterious. One day it can feel like you are wrapped in a prickly shawl that makes you uncomfortable only now and then, when the prickles pinch you. Other times it can weigh you down like an iron wrap and slow you down for no reason at all. It snakes around and hides a spell and you may think that all must be fine, until it crawls out at the most inopportune time.
It is a slow process and not one person experiences it exactly the same way but the roller coaster of emotions can make you nauseous sometimes and other times angry, sad, guilty and salty tears return again cleansing your heart.
Sometimes I find grief is a bit like a leaky faucet. You know when, all you really need to do is change those worn out washers, but you don’t get around to it. The water may start leaking when you least expect it.
Aw but laughter is cathartic and it can be a nice way to reminisce of past times, long ago and maybe an image will make you smile…a nice reprieve.
November has been more palpable than former years. Once we passed a few weeks of rain, one gets the feeling that life is still hanging on. There are the odd trees with colourful leaves hanging proudly on their branches. It is almost as if nature is making a statement but it is difficult to interpret the meaning.
The other day I noticed one tree on my way to work with half of the right side full of yellow leaves and the other half completely bare. I smiled as I passed by the tree and wondered how the wind and the rain worked in tandem to catch ONLY one side of the tree. “Nature works in mysterious ways sometimes”, I thought to myself, shaking my head.
Yes, November seems less dark. Last week I looked out the window from my desk at work and I catch a glimpse of such beauty. No time to get to the rooftop for I may miss those warm colours. Yesterday, I saw this huge ball of fire dipping and the few seconds it took for me to aim my phone to that glorious scene, the sun had almost slipped completely below the horizon!
How blessed I feel, sitting at my desk, watching the Great Spirit paints different shades with each brush stroke on His canvas. And despite listening to the struggles of youths on the phone, I am relieved we can give them a bit of hope and I feel the presence of something very powerful as I look out the window.
I am thinking of the approaching days and the anniversary of my mother’s death As we approach this date, December 2nd, I feel myself slowly replaying that night by her side … her last moments here. I cannot help but wonder if it is because it is my mother. It is just as I replay the birth of my children the day before their birthdays even 30+ years later; I find myself also replaying the end of life with my mother. How blessed I was to be by her side.
ashen waves
sentimental currents
whispering despair
wind driving clouds away
making way for sunshine
I love remembering times with my mother and talking about her with my children. They too have fond memories of her. Every time they smile and laugh at how funny she was. She was a bit like Lucille Ball only she was not acting!
(c)Clr,16
missing you
my new role in life
as an orphan
remembering you
showers of sweet blessings
Walking home she lifted her eyes towards the sky and sighed. The beauty of that moon gave her energy despite the end of a long evening at work. She stopped, admiring this cosmic show and wished she could capture just once, with a photo. “Aw”, she said, “at least I have this imprinted in my memory. Perhaps if I write about it, whenever I want to be reminded of celestial beauty, the words may bring me back to this moment.” Just before walking into her home, she took one last look …
speechless weaving through stray billows moon and I
The body remembers, they say. Last night after dinner around eight, her lower back was aching. They had just finished a birthday dinner one day ahead. Her son was born the following day at noon. When her guests left, she put an ice-pack on her back and rested on her comfy couch watching a new series “The Crown”. The series caught her attention in so many ways since her mother had her children during the same era Queen Elizabeth did and she was born in 1926 like her mother. Watching the children in those times, the fashion, the cars, brought her back to her own childhood. Reminiscing back and forth from her youth and bouncing back to when she gave birth to her firstborn was a memorable way to end her evening.
.
She remembers, long ago, that soft throb coming from her lower back every fifteen minutes on her lower back and increasing with intensity over hours until she realized after midnight that this must be the beginning of her labour. Who really knows when it’s your first?
.
Perhaps it is true…the body remembers and her backache was a subtle reminder of the joy of giving birth today to her son, thirty-eight years ago.
years go by seem to vanish in thin air like a shooting star
years go by
babe to boy to teen to man
life fast-forwards
seem to vanish in thin air
time at a standstill
snapshots remember
like a shooting star
beyond the milky way,
how time flies!
(c) Tournesol’16-11-07
Daily Moments November 7, 2016
To learn how to write a Troiku which is a new form of Haiku, Chèvrefeuille, who created this form, explains it on his blog Carpe Diem Haiku Kai