It's funny how something will trigger a deep dive into a yesterday you thought was gone. That's what happened, as I got ready to do the dishes this morning, shortly after Joan left for work...
Taking care of Lorelei and Aydan (our grandchildren) a couple days each week is an education - a classroom where Joan and I sit before untainted teachers who seek to fulfill their every curiosity - to make each and every moment count for something - to live every moment like it's the only one they have...which is the case in reality, or so it seems to me (that everything we've ever done and/or accomplished has taken place in "the moment at hand").
Yesterday I spent time with each grandchild alone...Lorelei (who's four years old) and I traveled around the yard, picking some ripe tomatoes from the garden; picking a bunch of apples from the ground, beneath two apple trees (one a crab apple tree and the other I think is a Golden Delicious variety - very tasty!); picking up some trash from the side of Sacandaga Road (trash others throw from their car windows in their rush to get there - wherever there is...); finding a wooly-bear caterpillar on the driveway near some tiny cherries that have begun to fall from the Black Cherry trees - a caterpillar that fascinated Lorelei for the better part of a half-hour; and time in the garage, where I had music playing from an old stereo...while I worked on an old chain saw - cleaning the spark plug and spark arrestor and air filter - and asking Lorelei for this screwdriver and that pair of pliers...and in between, she touched each tool in the toolbox - sorting and examining and organizing what was oblivious to me...
...And then there's Aydan, who at one year old, has to be watched to insure he doesn't eat leaves and grass...and rocks, while outside. And he said the first real words that I understood - mimicking Joan after lunch was done saying, "All Done", while at the same time raising his hands into the air...and while Joan read a second book to Lorelei just before her nap, I held Aydan, here before this keyboard and computer screen - running my fingers up his leg to find a baby Buddha belly that triggered endless giggling - is there anything better than a toddler's laughter?...I don't thinks so...
...And yet - all that happened yesterday, while in the presence of my grandchildren (my professors), had been forgotten - lost to my morning fortune telling exercise, where I plan the steps I will take and predict their outcome...that is, until I found trapped in the sink strainer, a few things that reminded me of the importance of my yesterday...and before the thoughts and lessons left my mind once again, I sat down and wrote these words:
Moments Resurrected in my Strainer
I cleared the sink of dishes...and sippy cups...
And on went the hot water...sprayed to clear the way...
And there in the strainer appeared a moment...
Brought back to life - pulled from the archives of my mind.
A bean and a tiny piece of hot dog...and some tiny twigs...
And into my time machine I climbed...Back to the Future...
Straining away the moments of my life...
Some are too big to fit through the holes,
They remain with me, placed into my treasure chest,
Waiting for the right time to reappear.
And that moment came this morning after Joan left for work...
Leaving me to me and the Tuesday I call my own.
And there in the sink strainer I found a magical moment,
A moment that now will be moved to a new place in my attic...
A place that is sheltered from the winds and rains and distractions
Of a world that too often screams what should be whispered;
All in the hope that we follow where they lead...
The bean and the tiny piece of hot dog...and the twigs,
All came from Lorelei's plate - a child's plate.
A plate that had sat upon a magical tray,
Inside a tent where we all ate supper yesterday...
A picnic supper of hot dogs and beans...inside my pack tent,
On the lawn above the stream - Lorelei and Aydan...Joan and I...
Almost forgotten, while planning the moments of my new day...
Telling my own fortune in my usual way...until
I saw the bean...and my mind sought out the saved files
And into my Now came yesterday...for a time.
Lorelei ate everything on her plate - so unusual in her picky stage...
Supper in a tent changes everything - makes a meal special
For Lorelei, Aydan, Joan and I...
Well, she ate everything but a single bean...
And a tiny piece of hot dog that got left behind
In the ketchup we call "dipping sauce"...
And the twigs...ah yes, the twigs...
They came after supper was done,
As the rolling and jumping had begun...
Sending debris from the nylon-spun floor into the air,
And onto a child's plate and my attic's stairs.
