Steal me
London, ON, June 2011
About this photo: It's Thematic's classic week. Head here to jump in.Thank you all for your kind thoughts in the wake of yesterday, a day many of us would rather forget. A friend from high school, comedian and writer Stewart Silver, passed away very suddenly, and we're still trying to understand something that, frankly, can't be understood.
This is the first loss from my high school class, and the statistical reality that not all of us will live full lives is now sickeningly real. I know that the proverbial clock begins ticking the moment our lives flicker into being, but that still doesn't make it any easier to logically comprehend. It just isn't logical to begin with.
When I'm feeling challenged by the universe, I tend to pull back into the things that bring me comfort. Family, writing, photography, media. I idly tickle my laptop's keyboard, waiting for the moment when the words begin to flow. I look through pictures I've taken and try to remember what it felt like when I was looking through the viewfinder. Tonight, I came up with this one, as it isn't only a classic icon of the automotive industry. It's a reminder of a warm late-spring evening spent waiting for our daughter to return home from a faraway trip.
Memories of moments like this mean so much more when you realize how easily it can all be taken away.
Your turn: What do you cherish?
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4 comments:
Cherish it ALL!
Bless you dear Carmi
Aloha from Honolulu
Comfort Spiral
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What do I cherish? My family and friends. Things happen fast - and we can lose anyone in a matter of seconds. We need to hug and make those that we cherish know they are loved...and tell them often.
I think it was in the 1980s that I first experienced the death of people who I worked with. It was strange, and unusual, because I was young and I had heretofore hung out with people my own age, who were less likely to die. But in the '80s I worked for a labor union where there were older members as well as younger - and I was perplexed and unaccountably puzzled when co-workers in their 70s and 80s died.
Then, later, people I knew who were my age died of AIDS. Or drug overdoses. Or stupid things they did while on drugs.
It seemed so strange. Why would someone I accepted as my peer, die?
Now, in my 50's, I look back and when I reminisce, I think of many friends and co-workers who are gone - for many reasons, ranging from pure chance to ill health to evil.
It is sobering. We're all human. We all go someday.
what do i cherish....?
i cherish what i know can Never be taken away. Which actually doesn't leave a whole lot!
So it's the memories of time spent well with people.
It's the look of sycamore wings each autumn, remembering the strings of them that one friend threaded.
It's crunching through the beech nuts on the way to a supermarket today and remembering the little boy who stood under a beech tree as they 'rained' down on him through the branches.
It's standing in total silnce wioth another dear friend on the very top of the hills...and listening to the total silence around us.
It's the memory of watching two of my scamps swimming in The Mediteranean.
It is sitting in a Welsh Opera House and feeling the music rattle my bones.
It is watching three little boys play in a cardboard house, fashioned out of the wrapping for a cooling system
It is the friend who travelled to see us and painted with the children and myself.
It is the herb bed, accurately fashioned and gave so much pleasure.
While my memory still works, i cherish these memories. they are as precious to me as the people who currently fill and overflow in my life. Possibly because as I fade, and as my own decline starts, these will be more real than yesterdays visitors....
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