Where Love Lives

 Since Valentine’s Day is upon us, I thought I would share a little story I wrote. It’s pure fiction, based on nobody in particular.  I wish you all to live in a house filled with love.

Where Love Lives

Sometimes you walk into a place and you just know love lives here. It’s an intangible thing, a sense of how things are, but nothing you can put your finger on. So it was inside the souvenir shop where I found my temporarily missing wife.

The bed and breakfast was located in a sleepy little town along an old state highway, left behind decades ago when the big interstate was built. We wanted someplace quiet to spend a week away from work and the New York City summer crowds, and we found it an hour away from home in of all places, New Jersey. There was a blues bar in the town center where we had danced the night before, along with a number of antique shops, post office, town hall, and a deli. Church bells rang every day at noon and six in the evening, old oak and maple trees lined the street and gave deep shade to the front of the inn. The Sleeping Swan boasted deep, comfortable furniture in the bedrooms and common room, and rocking chairs on the wrap around porch, as well as simple, delicious, home cooked meals. I had fallen asleep after a bountiful brunch and on awakening found that my wife left a note on the bedside table. “Gone shopping with Gayle” the note said. It took me a minute to remember who Gayle was, since we just met her and Raymond at breakfast that morning. Silence greeted me as I descended the stairs and passed through the parlor to the front door. A slight rhythmic creak alerted me to Raymond’s position in the last rocker at the other end of the porch. Nodding in recognition he continued his slow rocking as I perched on the edge of the chair one away from his.

“Our ladies are out spending our hard earned money,” he said with a wink, wiggling gray eyebrows over twinkling blue eyes. “I don’t know about Regina, but Gayle loves to hunt for treasures in these little towns we visit. She always seems to find the out of the way shops with handmade things that somehow we didn’t realize we need.” I didn’t answer, I was wondering how to politely get out of this conversation with the older man to search for Regina when he said, “If you want to go find your wife, they went up the street that way,” and pointed to the right toward the blues bar.

“What makes you think I want to go find her?” I asked.

“Son, I know the look of a man who feels lost when he wakes up and finds no wife where he expected to see one,” he answered and then put his head back and pulled his straw hat over his eyes.

I wondered at senior’s perceptiveness as I passed the bar and peeked into an antique shop which displayed tiffany style lamps and vases in its large picture window. How had he known what I was feeling, when I barely knew myself? It didn’t take long to glance in the four remaining shops on the street, and I stood indecisively in front of the post office before deciding to explore the rest of the town and headed down a side street. About halfway down the block I began to hear the tinkling of wind chimes along with a clicking sound. Following my ears I found a yard filled with wind chimes hanging from wrought iron shepherd’s hooks and a collection of colorful wooden whirligigs mounted on wooden

posts. A sign under the roadside mailbox read “Moving Air, handmade gifts”. Following the flagstone path, I was drawn to the craftsman style house and its red door. As I ducked through into the crowded space I took in a breath of the tantalizing scent of chocolate chip cookies, and saw Regina smiling at the clerk and paying for her purchase. As I stood there watching her, she turned her head and noticed me.

“Greg!” she exclaimed, “What are you doing here?” and forgetting her bag, rushed over to hug me. “Isn’t this place fabulous?” she asked, and proceeded to gush about all the wonderful things they had, and tell me how they were all hand made by the proprietors, a husband and wife named George and May. “Isn’t it great? George makes all the whirligigs and May makes the chimes, and the cookies. Here, have one, they’re on the house if you want to try one. I bought 2 dozen to take home with us tomorrow,” and she held one up to my lips. As I ate the cookie she introduced me to George and May who stood talking quietly to Gayle. There was something about the place, and the couple who owned it, a calmness, a sense of peace and the feeling that no matter what else happened in the world, everything would be all right. George and May stood side by side, without touching, yet seemed connected to each other in some cosmic way that most people aren’t. It was an oasis in a desert of negativity which the outside world had become. This was a house where love lived. Now we live in the love house. Ten years ago George and May sold the house to us when they decided to retire and move closer to their children. Raymond and Gayle passed away within days of each other a year ago right after their last visit to the Sleeping Swan where we met them every year since that first until we moved here to start a family. Our children knew them as Grandpa Ray and Grammy Gayle, and we will miss them. After all, if Gayle hadn’t befriended Regina that day and found the “Moving Air” shop, we wouldn’t have found the house where love lives.

January Almost Gone!

     It's hard to believe that January is almost over already!  Although it has felt like an extremely long month, it has gone by so quickly that I am surprised to realize there are only a few days left.  I still have some Christmas decorations up!  I guess part of me must be stuck in the recent past or something.  I've been busy with filling out forms for applications for services for my daughter and myself, and helping my husband with some that he needs to do.  I guess the new year brings new forms to fill out!  I sure hope this trend does not continue throughout 2023 or I'm going to be one extremely cranky person as I truly hate filling out forms. I'm not sure which is worse, ones that give you barely any room to write your answer (unless you are a mouse using a mouse sized pen) or ones that give you multiple choice boxes to check but the options they give don't really apply to you, forcing you to decide which option is closest to the truth.  And honestly, who is really reading all these forms?  I think the answer is NOBODY and they just want them for your file in case there is some question about the validity of their actions so they can go back and say "but look what she wrote there", moving any blame squarely onto your shoulders and off of theirs.  Ok, rant over! haha! Just had to put that out there, in case anyone else feels the same.

Anyhow, lest you think I have only negative thoughts to begin the new year, I wrote a couple of short verses.  It's always a treat when I get up in time to watch the moon set while the sun is rising.  It most often happens when the moon is full and bright enough to overcome the light sky, it's a little bit like the universe saying "there is a balance to everything"--one light rises and another one goes down--another new chance to find balance in your life.

I seriously dislike watching or listening to news reports because there is so much yelling and arguing always leading the stories they report on.  As all the hollering and bickering is happening, we all have to just try and set that aside and keep doing the good things that we can do to bring something positive into every day.  It can be hard, I know,  but somehow we do manage to do that.  We need to celebrate that more.  That is what inspired this next verse.  The picture was just my shadow one day as I stood on the landing of my back deck looking at the sky and the lake in the distance.

May 2023 be kind to us all!

Wrapping Up 2022

 As the year ends I reflect on what I may have learned this trip around the sun we have all just completed. So, the most important thing I learned is that when push comes to shove we always figure it out together.  I always thought that if I were unable for some reason to care for our daughter it would mean she would have to be moved into a facility with 24 hour care instead of living in our home, the only one she has ever known, with us as her caregivers and me primarily doing the hands on tasks.  Well, I was injured and needed rotator cuff surgery so was unable for a time to do many of the hands on tasks.  My husband stepped seamlessly in to that role until we were able to find a qualified home care aide to come in for a few hours so that he could go to work.  It has all worked out well and I find that acting as a manager instead of the primary hands on person is not as difficult as I had feared.  I also learned that having patience with myself and healing is just as important as having patience with others.  I am amazed at how the body heals and compensates for muscles and tendons that are unable to be repaired completely so that most function is possible once again; at least enough to accomplish what I need and want to. I also learned that sharing my poems and thoughts seems to help some of my friends in some way and that it is a gift to be able to do so.  I'm sure there is much more but for me these were the most important lessons.

Happy New Year!  Let's see what 2023 teaches us!

Startled!

     I went to the supermarket today for just a few things (which by the way translates to 3 bags and over $100.00) and I was engrossed in my thoughts as I approached my car with the cart and remotely unlocked it and opened the trunk.  I found a box of wipes there that I forgot to take inside the other day, slid them aside and turned to put the bags in the trunk and just about had a heart attack because there stood a tall young man! He had a friendly face under a pea cap and sunglasses, he was wearing a reflective safety vest with the supermarket's logo on it over his winter coat and warm gloves and was reaching for my bags. I caught my breath, chuckled and said that he had scared me as I neither saw nor heard him coming. He apologized and put my bags in the car for me, then took the empty cart and continued collecting them from the parking lot as he pushed them toward the building.   I giggled to myself all the way home thinking about that and it got me remembering other times when someone has startled me.

    The first instance that comes to mind is when I was maybe 10 years old and my eldest brother stood outside the bathroom door and jumped out at me yelling "Boo!" as I exited.  I remember screaming and grabbing the front of his shirt and shaking him, ripping the buttons off. Growing up with 3 brothers was an experience.  When I worked at the high school kitchen (a job I was forced to leave and never go back to because of the pandemic in 2020 and circumstances at home) there was a young man working there as well and he liked to scare us in a similar matter to my brother.  I, however, warned him not to do it to me and related the story about my brother and the ripped buttons saying that if I could do that at such a young age, imagine how much more damage I could do to someone now.  I guess my warning worked because he never did try to scare me.

    Another time that comes to mind was when my daughter was in the hospital for surgery and we were lucky enough to be moved to a room with no roommate for a few days (at my request due to  a roommate with a loud mother).  It was very quiet, she was sleeping, it was after 8:00 pm and the lights were low.  I was reading a Dean Koontz novel and was at a part in the story where a crazed rhesus monkey was getting ready to jump onto the protagonist when a voice said, "hello".  My heart just about beat out of my chest as I jumped and almost screamed.  It was the hospital chaplain come to see how we were doing and if we needed anything he could help with.  We both had a good laugh for a minute.

    We've all probably been startled awake by a ringing phone, loud clap of thunder, or sudden wind gust blowing something against the house in the middle of the night. Some people startle more readily than others, or maybe some of us just hide it better.  Who's to say, but I do think it's something everyone can relate to.

Well I know Thanksgiving is over, but wanted to share this here.  I hope everyone had a nice day filled with good food, people you love, and thankfulness for what you have.

Pictures and Poems

I try to post with some regularity on my little blog here, and every night I tell myself that tomorrow I will write a blog post but life just gets in the way and time goes by without it ever being "tomorrow", apparently.  Perhaps for the new year coming up in a few short weeks I will resolve to be a more regular poster!  It's not even that anything life shattering is going on, it's just the normal business of having family, friends, commitments, and things of that nature which we have.  Anyway, these are some pictures and short verse I have done in recent weeks, so I haven't been a total slouch! haha

We owe such a large amount of gratitude to our veterans.  We can never repay them for what they do.

This was a Sunday afternoon thought on an unseasonably warm summerlike November afternoon which found me enjoying sitting on the back deck with Hillary while my husband puttered in the yard.

These vultures were hanging out by the parking lot at my library the week before Halloween.  I took the picture not knowing what they were and got out my mother's Audubon book of birds to see what they might be.  I took that book when we were cleaning out her house after she moved into a nursing home. I like it better than searching the internet, as I prefer reading books I can riffle through and feel to reading on a tablet or electronic reader. Very old school.

The last rose blooms before we have frost that kills them and they sleep until next spring.

We do tend to rush past November headlong into December and the Christmas season.  Indeed, I have already begun shopping for Christmas gifts for my loved ones, even before I have solidified my Thanksgiving feast menu and coordinated with those who will bring dishes to the meal.  Probably I will still be doing things last minute for both events, it's just how it is!