Life and Random Thinking

Sophie was stunned. She was returned from deployment on a submarine for six months, her heart filled with stories to share with her Mom, Stella. But all that waited for her was silent walls, and not the homecoming she expected.

Sophie’s Mom Stella was gone, holding her tongue she had said nothing to Sophie about her terminal diagnosis fearing holding Sophie back from the most exciting opportunity in her naval career.

Sophie stood silent, unmoving in her apartment except for the racking of her lungs as she tried to breath from the tears. “Mom, I would not have gone, I would have been there, I love you, I need you” and her tears ran, and her heart broke with shock and it felt like she was knifed in the heart. The wound cut deep.

Sophie sat on the floor until the darkness forced her to her feet to turn on a light.

Luke aka Skywalker felt content, and wet. The rain, cold and soft, ran down his face and over his chilled face. Not exactly a grin, and not exactly a smile was on his face as he rode his bike along the paved path.

The path was cracked, with moss in the cracks and chunks missing here and there. Luke was soaking up the silence in the off-roadway path and nodded his head at the dog walkers and cyclists he passed.

The laugh lines around his eyes condensed as he realized that this was meditation for him. The misty rain and the cracked pathway seemed perfect to him and to his head space.

Crickets! He skidded to a stop, and rested his rear, which was sore from the bike seat. The crickets music to his ears as dusk approached. The crickets song clear and in harmony to him. The cool air…

To read Call Me Skywalker from the beginning click HERE

Stella died a month ago.  Luke’s mind still saw her face easily, picturing her laughing and singing along with the Beatles.  He half smiled, and his eyes twinkled remembering how she always seemed to be singing a song or pieces of a song during the day.

Stella loved to infect him with a melody of song so after he sat with her, laughed with her, the rest of his day had these earworms of pop music popping up.

Luke chuckled, one week she kept singing “Bennie and the Jets” and he walked around singing Bennie, Bennie, Bennie and the Jets all week. He smiled but there was a tear in his eye.

Luke was doing better now.  After the funeral he had felt dazed, his face felt numb and it almost seemed like he had his face pressed against a…

God’s providence or karma brought them together – it changed both their lives.

He was just graduated from nursing school,  and turned 25 years old. Excited to be starting his new job at a hospice, he moved to a whole new city to start his career. The first day on the job he met Stella.

Stella was 83,  and she found the days long, dark and lonely at the hospice.  She was looking out the window at the rain, when her new caregiver came to bring her breakfast at 7:30 a.m.

Good morning Stella, my name is Luke but please call me Skywalker. Today is my first day and I will be your caregiver. How are you today?

He looked deep into Stella’s eyes and for the first time in weeks she felt like she was in the centre of someone’s attention, and not somewhere out on the edge.

Stella…

I have discovered that people are surprised by compliments or expressions of appreciation.

I don’t mean with family, or your closest friends – they aren’t surprised. I mean the people you see regularly, but you don’t know their birthday, but you aren’t a stranger neither.

The cost is free, the time it takes is negligible to give a sincere compliment but the effect is long lasting.

I workedin an office in Vancouver decades ago, and this event is still remembered. One of my coworkers took the time one day to mention she noticed I took the time to dress well for work (ironed shirts, ties) everyday. She complimented me on my appearance. It struck me because the compliment was unexpected but appreciated. I don’t remember her name but I recall how I felt because she took the time to say a few kind words. Unexpected, welcome and…

I know I have mentioned it before,  I have been reading the books of Alexander McCall  Smith and they take place in Botwana. The heroine in the series I have been reading called No. Ladies Detective Agency is Precious Ramotswe.

“It was time to take the pumpkin out of the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, that was what solved these big problems of life. You could think and think and get nowhere, but you still had to eat your pumpkin. That brought you down to earth. That gave you a reason for going on. Pumpkin.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

The dozen or so books are inspiring, and I would genuinely like to meet this author who breathes so much life into his characters. The author lived in Africa and if you click his wikipedia link you will…