–Zebra Mama and Baby, photo © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
I’ve been feeling blue today. There’s the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, and I know my friends there are dealing with the whole spectrum of emotion. I wish I could just hug them.
Then this weekend we take the girls to yet another sleepaway camp. Dee and Em are thrilled, but Jim and I were saying it feels like we’ve spent the entire summer rushing from one camp to another. I miss having a normal routine.
Does it ever hit you that you’re not a child anymore? Like you wish you could crawl onto your Mom’s lap or grab your Dad’s big warm hand and bring it to your face, but your parents are frail or struggling with serious illness. It suddenly dawns on you that this is now and that was then, and you get a big lump in your throat (and gosh, here you are at work hoping no one walks by your cubicle because how do you explain your red nose and the tears in your eyes?).
Anyway, I took this photo on a trip to South Africa back in 2002, I think. I had an early phone camera. The photo’s not great but it’s one of my screensavers, and it made me smile today and feel a little bit less melancholy. Hopefully it will cheer you up, too, if you need cheering up at all.
TGIF. Have a good weekend.
–posted in red Ravine, August 3, 2007
ybonesy, thanks for posting this last night. I was comforted when I read it. I saw the post after Liz and I got home from a walk down by the river, as close to the I-35 bridge as we could get. Like Teri (in the Fear of Bridges post), we couldn’t see much. But it was kind of comforting to simply be there. More to come.
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It’s a tough thing to watch…you’re parents getting frail. My Mother has always been ill (since before I was born) but my Father, well…he was my life. I have learned to go on without him…but he is always with me. I hear him in my own laugh. He’s in my calmness, my reasoning and even some of my talent.
It’s ok to be sad sometimes. It make us treasure the goodness all that much better. I think most of us understand a red nose and tearful eyes once in a while. I have an exit door and a back porch:)
Nice photo!
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Heather, you’re back! Yes, I remember the first post of yours I read. I think it was about fishing with your father.
I love my dad. He used to drive me crazy when I was a teenager and young woman. He’s a real structured person and stubborn. But he’s gentle and sweet, and we all love to laugh with him. I’ll go visit him and my mom today.
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