stopped by aunt bea’s to see her new screened in porch as we were sitting there we talked about how people respond to kindness by upping their game aunt bea said there’s a tendency for folks to strive to prove their self-worth by standing independently in a dependent world having to do their fair share of challenging tasks as if collecting merit badges seeing self-worth as gathering up accomplishments for others to see instead of self-love draining their life’s energy in a competitive mode then aunt bea smiled and said there’s a difference between can do and should do
when i visited
aunt bea
there was a young man
sitting on the curb
in front of her home
who
quite
reluctantly
moved
as i drove up
when i asked aunt bea
about his behavior
aunt bea
said
that child
always
nods his head
and
says
yes ma’am
at least
acknowledging
that
i’m taking
but
his actions say
he hasn’t heard
a word
i’ve said
i do believe
that child has
a promising future
in
politics
i was telling aunt bea
about
a friend
of mine
that works
in a nursing home
and
how she said
that
some elderly
are
so confused
that they talk
about
people who’ve died
as if
they’re still alive
aunt bea
took a deep breath
and
said
there are people
on the periphery
of
your life
who’ve passed on
that we say
i knew them
but
there are others
whose love is so implanted
in our hearts and souls
that they are
always
talked about as
i know
so and so
for you see
they are
still alive
a living memory
of
true love
yesterday when i visited aunt bea i was looking through an old photo album pictures of her when she was young and i asked how often she looked at the photos aunt bea said not often not because memories can’t warm the heart but the things you used to do can end up restricting what you do today they can build a cage that prevents you from exploring life so you have to adapt and squezze through the bars of yesterday and continue to explore and enjoy what life has to offer now
for the longest time
i’ve wanted
to ask
aunt bea
why she keeps those
far less
than
perfect
childhood sculptures
we made
mixed in
with
her
fine porcelain
aunt bea
said
those of us
who have
maintained
some level of sanity
are aware
of
our imperfections
and
are able to
carry on
while some folks
fervently pursue
what does not
exist
perfection
becoming
paralyzed
absorbed
into
the social madness
of
life
those early
artistic endeavors
of yours
were made
with
love
and
innocence
and as such
are
perfect
stopped by aunt bea’s to deliver some costco items she had asked for i told aunt bea that i had had a very interesting conversation with an elderly woman who was in one of those electric shopping carts the kind with a small basket in front which seemed to me to be ill-suited for a warehouse market a market that generally sells supersize items and that basket couldn’t have held more than two or three of anything but we had a nice visit however i said to aunt bea i still can’t figure out why she just didn’t order the items online and have them delivered aunt bea smiled and said maybe she wasn’t shopping for any particular item but for what you provided
i’ve spent quite a few sleepless nights during this quarantine period trying to measure aspects of my life and wondering how others could have just now begun to appreciate the struggles confronting those all around them since aunt bea has lived through so much i thought i’d give her call and asked her opinion aunt bea said the pace of our daily routines blurs our views of of life’s journey keeping what we’ve seen or what we could have seen out of focus perhaps the pandemic has forced us to slow down and see what’s been right in front of us the whole time we just needed to slow down a bit to feel the pain of others
i got aunt bea a new iphone so we could do a little facetime while we’re confined to our respective homes we were reminiscing about my inability as a youth to distinguish mushrooms that were edible from those that were poisonous i suppose it’s a bit like picking the right president aunt bea said sometimes we can’t choose for ourselves and every now and then that can be a good thing but we must always be observant and actively engaged just in case those who chose for us made a serious mistake
after so much dialogue about prayer this past week i was wondering what aunt bea thought about all this public combat on religious observances so i stopped by on my way home from work she said public prayer lets folks know you have something in common with them or serves as a how great i art vulgar marketing ploy but private prayer lets you have an uninterrupted conversation with the divine it makes folks feel better to have expressed what is already known one thing’s for sure prayer for power is not the same as the power of prayer
Read Between the Minds 