THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS (PART TWO)

Most of us who like to write our blogs, I assume, have wild imaginations and like to think of all sorts of possibilities and things that we could (and do) post on our blogs. At least that's the way that I am and that's the way that my mind works. There is always something churning in the background and usually, if I don't remember to take my camera along, that is the one time that there is something so incredible that I wish I had remembered it. So now I've just beome accustomed to more often than not, carrying my camera along when I leave home. I don't like to be caught without it. Just in case!

On a typical day, if the weather is clear and not raining, you can find me out for a walk with my granddaughter in the stroller. This is part sanity, part physical exercise, and part just because I need to see something other than the inside of my house. There is so much life outside these four walls. I don't always remember to take my camera with me though. Last week I found something on my walk but I didn't need the camera with me to document it. I just bent over and picked it up.
It was this:

It was a card that someone had sent (or given I suppose) to someone else. It was a Valentine's Day card all about love. It had been rained upon, tossed by the wind and blown into the gutter, and was in very bad shape. And it was upside down so I didn't really know what it was when it caught my eye. I just saw some writing on it and became curious about what the wrtiting said. It could have just been a grocery list. Or a receipt for all I knew. But, when I picked it up and investigated it, I noticed that it was signed and there was something personal that had been written on the inside. This is the inside:

You can just make out what the card says and in fact, I cannot really read who signed it because it is so degraded. It could be from a man to a woman or vice versa. But all the same, it meant something to someone at sometime. And that is where the possibilities begin.

This card got me to thinking about the giver and the recipient. And why the card ended up in the gutter as if it didn't really mean anything. Or did it? Did the card blow out the window of a car and get lost? Did the recipient reject the card and throw it out of the window? Perhaps the giver of the card wrote all these things and then decided that it was in vain and tossed it out the window him(her)self? Imagine the stories that this card could tell if only it could talk. Maybe the person who received it accidentally lost it and is devastated that the card is no longer in his/her possession.  The possiblities are endless and that is where this card took me.

I have had it sitting on my desk for about a week now. It kept calling to me, bekoning me to write about it but the time just has not permitted. Sickness has struck my family this last week or so and frankly, I just have not had the time to sit down and devote the effort to it. I'm sure that some of you have the same thing happen to you occasionally. The intentions are good but time does not allow. We have to do what is important to us at the moment. And frankly, we have all been a bit sad around here after losing a dear friend after forty years. It is not easy to imagine not ever seeing him again but we also have wonderful memories to keep him alive in our hearts. His daughter just got engaged last week too. I'm sure he would have been thrilled with the news. He was very particular though, as to who was good enough for his daughter.

And so, life seems to be on its steady pace despite the loves and the losses. The finder of the card  has imagined many different scenarios about the card and picking it up has added something to the fabric of my life now. I can imagine the possibilities. I hope that it was a happy ending but I also realize that not every story has a happy ending. Sometimes there is hope and sometimes there is not. That is life. That is love. Those are the possibilities.

The month of the heart

Today, my heart is breaking as I just learned that our good friend Bob Paley passed away tonight. I can't tell you what losing a friend of over forty years means. There are no words except that this is the month of the heart and my heart is broken. Yet in some ways, my heart is full for knowing this man.

We first met Bob in the early seventies. He had just moved up to northern California from southern California and arrived in style. He was a big fish in a small pond. He had the most beautiful woman with him at the time too. Martha became the mother of his two wonderful children, Sunny and Silver who have turned out to be the most incredible young people anyone would ever want to meet. And I'm sure it is no accident that they are the way they are. It was because of the influence, in part, of Bob on their lives.

Bob was an incredible gardener. He had a way with flowers that I have never seen before. I could not see him for a week, return a week later, and the garden would have exploded. Vegetables and flowers alike. He had a way of taking care of plants that I have never seen in my entire life. They responded to him. They loved him. And the feeling was mutual.

Bob also loved animals. I don't think I ever saw him without a dog. And sometimes not just one but multiple dogs. If he had to give them away after they were weaned he took great care to select just the right person to raise that animal. He knew if it was a good fit. He had some sort of sixth-sense about animals. I guess it translated from animals to plants as well.

He owned many restaurants and man...was he a good cook. The restaurants were decorated from the rafters with dried flowers of every variety. If you would look up, you would think you were in his backyard by the plethora of color that adorned the rafters. He was known for his gift of gab too. I suppose that's why his restaurants were so popular with the town. He started out with an ice cream parlor and branched out from there. Desserts of many kinds were served in that parlor! I remember Connie Nelson making some killer cheese cakes there. Good follows good, doesn't it!!

Bob was also a fellow Taurus. We used to talk about being so connected to the earth, he and I. I spent many afternoons visiting with Bob. After he and his daughter Sunny built a new home in Georgetown, I used to go over once a week and help Bob and Sunny out by cleaning house for them. Sunny used to joke and say that she got me to come out of retirement to help her out. I was a blessing in disguise really. I always got more from Bob than I bargained for. One time I complimented him on a beautiful triangular-shaped jar and when I left that afternoon, it was sitting by my purse for me to take home. He was so generous. And his praises went unsung by him.

There was someone in our community who lost their home to a fire and the next week Bob had delivered a trailer for them to live in and if I'm not mistaken, also gave them some money to get by on. He was just like that. Another friend lost her husband and was down on her luck and didn't have transportation. He gave her his car. Most people didn't know how generous Bob was to so many in town. He never boasted about it. That wasn't like him. He was just a kind, wonderful person that saw a need and filled it.

I will miss Bob dearly. Since we moved to the adjoining county we missed seeing him as often as we used to but he was never far from our thoughts. Bill had just seen him a week and a half ago. They talked about their broken femurs and probably commiserated about their aches and pains...the sad signs of getting older. But Bob was young at heart and taken from this earth a bit too soon in my estimation. I'll always remember him for what he gave...to me, to the community, to his children, to the earth...to life. He was never afraid to take a chance...to gamble on something that he felt was the right thing to do. And most of the time it paid off. I think he landed on his feet more times than not. We all take some bumps in life. Bob learned to roll with his.

Wherever he has transitioned to, I know in my heart that there will be a beautiful garden there waiting for him to tend it. There will also be animals to love and tend to. How could there not be? Someone so special will have a special place to call home. He is loved and missed but he is still here in my heart...in our hearts. Not only this month of the heart, but forever.

HAPPY FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS TO:

LELA MAE CALDWELL WALLACE

LYNNE MILO

RUBY EVERS

MARY GULLEY PACHECO

FRIENDS WHO HAVE ENRICHED MY LIFE...NOW AND FOREVER!