Laughter was the furthest thing from my lips that day back in 2014. Here is the story.
“Today was full of it.
Travelling to work this morning, much earlier than my usual hour for a Wednesday, it struck me.
Twelve years ago when we moved to Edmonton, Alberta, we lived in the neighbourhood I had returned to set up the house the night before.
What was more…startling let us say, were the memories that surfaced. Our first apartment, our yappy dog that we had snuck in, the fire alarm that would go off ever so frequently in the building at which said the dog would bark, giving away his presence, our first Christmas in Canada and me hurriedly baking Jamaican Christmas cakes to help my teenaged daughter feel less isolated.
A tear kissed my cheek as I bowed deeply in my heart to my ex who would trudge home a couple of miles through the snow after closing the restaurant.
Driving by my daughter’s former high school here in Edmonton, I could not help but laugh remembering her passing out on the basketball court. She was almost six feet tall but a basketball player we all knew she was not! Trying desperately to fit in, however, she succumbed to the coach’s ‘You are so tall’ speech. That was the shortest basketball career in history. Our laughter echoed from years gone by in my ear as I drove by Ross Sheppard High School.
‘Memories, light the corners of our mind…’
My mind drifted forward, to a late summer evening in 2006 in a cottage community just outside Edmonton. It was easily one of the most beautiful homes I have ever had the honour of visiting. We were house sitting for friends and had taken along another friend of mine as well. Our absentee hostesses had a great album collection and as my ex made breakfast, I was the deejay.
Our friend snapped a picture of my ex and me slow dancing in the kitchen to one of our favourite songs. The love between us was dying. The song transported us both to happier and more promising times.
Several months later, as I sat by a fire engine red stove burning photographs of our 16 years together, that picture was the last to be thrown in.
Yet, here I was in 2014 feeling every pain, pleasure and promise of then, now and to come.
‘Memories…may beautiful and yet…what’s to painful to remember, we simply choose to forget.’
Back to where it all began, our lives in Canada, what I now choose to remember, to cherish is every single minute that we grew. With these lessons, I am living as fully as I can in the now – on the strength of what has gone but graced us all.
What about you? Close your eyes right now for five minutes and allow your mind to bring forward a precious memory. What would that be? Share it with us here or on our Facebook page and have a good rest of the week.
“So it’s the laughter
We will remember
Whenever we remember…
The way we were…
The way we were…” (The Way We Were by Barbara Streisand)
Be Blessed and Be A Blessing,
