A00267 - A Very Special Mother's Day


I spent Mother's Day in an unusual way.  I spent an hour with my ex-wife and my youngest daughter at their house on the other side of town. I brought two dozen roses and some See's Candy to help celebrate the day.  My ex is, after all, the mother of our four children and deserves to receive the recognition for being a mother on this special day.  It was a pleasant time, we talked about our dance at my oldest daughter's wedding in March, about the ongoing saga of Meghan and Harry, and about the brand-new announcement I received that my brother's daughter is expecting her first child.  There was so much to catch up on.  It was a rather pleasant time and part of a trend of recent get togethers that were pleasant.  We both acknowledge that we are very different people, but we can set aside those differences on such occasions.  Indeed, I am planning on getting Barbecue for Memorial Day and my ex has been invited to come over to my house to join us for what should be a rather nice family get together.  It is good to see that two people can get along for a short period of time and enjoy each other's company in these twilight years.  

After returning home, I sent an email to some of my Amherst classmates about a potential project.  It being Sunday, I thought about God a great deal while drafting the email.  I thought about God because, from my perspective, it was only through the Grace of God that I would ever be in communication with these classmates.  After all, we are very different people from very different backgrounds, but for some reason God seems to have brought us together for this project, and I am spiritually overwhelmed.  There will be more about this later, but for now please note that I feel very blessed.

The other event on this Mother's Day was a phone call I made to my high school sweetheart after sending my email.  We had a very nice conversation about what her son was planning to cook for her Mother's Day celebration.  Being gourmands, the menu sounded simply delicious.  Having eaten meals with them over the years, I can attest to the culinary delights they routinely prepare.  Very well done.  While on the phone, I remarked that my weight loss and blood sugar decrease are pleasant developments. I credited my various medications along with my daily 10,000 steps (5.0-mile walk) as helping me to make progress on my health goals.  She noted that I still needed to cut down on my sweets.  I agreed but had to remind her that she was the one that used to bring me Hostess Ding Dongs for lunch so many years ago which may have started my sweet tooth habit.  She rebuted by reminding me that I looked anorexic back in those high school days and that I was a track athlete so, at that time, there was little thought that I would become twice the man that I was back then.  She is right, of course.  But then, she was right about so many things over the years.  It was nice to be able to reflect on those blessings as well.

After that phone call, I went to sleep.  Mother's Day was the third day of a four-day binge watch session.  I am watching "Goliath" the outstanding legal drama series on Amazon Prime starring Billy Bob Thornton.  I am awake now and will endeavor to complete my binge watch now.  However, before I do, I wanted to revisit one more moment concerning my ex.  When we married back in 1978, we were in a fundamentalist Christian church which did not seem favorable to dancing.  So, at our formal wedding reception, we did not engage in the traditional wedding dance.  And, indeed, during our entire 25-year marriage, we never went dancing.

At our daughter's wedding, I had to dance with my daughter which again started me to choke up.  While dancing with my daughter, my dear daughter sabotaged me by playing the Crystal Gayle classic "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue"

Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue (youtube.com)


I struggled through that song with only a few tears rolling down my cheeks. After dancing with my daughter, it was time for the parents to dance.  For the first time in our relationship, I got to dance with my ex and the song that my daughter chose for us to dance to was a Stevie Wonder classic "Ribbon in the Sky"

Ribbon In The Sky (youtube.com)


Carried away by the moment, I began to sing to my ex while dancing with her.  It was a magic moment.  After the song came to an end, and our dancing had stopped, my ex actually came and held my hand.  My ex and I have had some troubled times in the past, but on that day, at that moment, there was a ribbon in the sky.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins
Fairfield, California 
May 12, 2024  




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