With Friends

Talking is a journey 

with friends through 

    yesterdays

  onto future dreams

Never orderly but burbling over pebbles of moments

   with a good wade through 

  shallow waters of today.

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…

It has no survival value; rather it is one of 

those things which give value to survival.”

~ C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

For Tomorrow and Beyond

 

Soft silence fills my home

as day becomes the night; 

afternoon laughter and caring 

with friends are sweet memories 

for tomorrow and beyond.

“As long as there is friendship, today is beautiful.”

~ Billie Joel 

Circled

It is like the years 

have not passed 

when we order our meals. 

No longer at the cafeteria 

in starched uniforms 

but at a steak house. 

Grandmothers and Aunts 

we were students then, 

our lives washed with careers, 

communities and families 

have circled back to 

renew laughter and care.

“It is more fun to talk with someone who 

doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather 

short, easy words like “What about lunch?”

~ A.A.Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Chapter Two, Episode 164 - More than Just Friends - Situationally Theirs

Samuel and Elizabeth had been out to a movie. There was an old movie house in a neighbouring village that played the classics each weekend. Complete with hand cranked buttered popcorn, worn velvet seats and cartoon shorts. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall had entertained them. When the lights went down and the reels started, they felt like teenagers again. As the credits rolled, they pointed out their favourite actors ~ not just the stars, but the bit players. When the lights came up and it was time to go, real life began again. With a difference. Their hearts were lighter. These evenings together and away from the Estate were their own. They had no kitchen, no garden, just the two of them enjoying each other’s company. 

As they drove home they took the scenic ocean route. The night hid the foliage and flowers, but the stars were bright. If it was a moonlit night, its bright light traced a path across the water. They would park at an overlook to the water. On a clear night, they walked hand in hand on a familiar path. Listened to distant foghorns. Pointed out the Big Dipper, Orion, the North Star. 

On this night, they were in the park when the snow started. Big, soft flakes that disappeared in the black water, clung to the fencing, brightened the night. Elizabeth shivered. “Time to get home and get warm, Samuel. Tea and coffee cake?” 

“Suppose we should. Don’t want to be on these roads if this snow keeps up. Sure is pretty though.” He opened her door for her, brushed the snow off the windshield and climbed in for the drive back to the Estate. “It’ll be gone by morning, don’t you think? It’s not cold enough to stay much into the morning.”

~~~~~

“Hasn’t been much to talk about tonight, Elizabeth. With the two couples off traipsing around the country and Martha and James keeping to themselves, the old place is pretty quiet.”

“I like it quiet. May be strange but, when I hear the news, and all the troubles in the world, quiet is just like I like it. I guess I’m not much of a talker. There was time when all I could do was talk and argue. Have opinions about the state of the world, life in general, whether I was being treated right. Guess that wisdom we heard so much about when we were young, has slowed that talking down.”

Samuel laughed. “You just might have something there, Elizabeth. All the talking that does carry on is just a bunch of going around in circles. The same circles folks have been going around for as long as there’s been life.” He cut himself another big cut of coffee cake, held it up where he could take a good look at it. “But for where I’m sittin’, this cake and the woman that made it, are all I need. There’s just no fight in me anymore. Does that sound like I’ve given up on things?”

Elizabeth’s cheeks felt warm when she heard Samuel’s sideways speech about his feelings for her. She knew some women would be offended, but she had known him for a long time. He did tell a good story, but feelings?

“That’s why I like going to the movies, or read a book. Listen to stories. That makes the troubles of that world all get fixed. When the story’s been told, it’s done. I can think of all the different ways that a story could be told, could end and leave it at that. I can’t fix what’s going on in the rest of the world, but I can take care of where I am.” She knew she was no better at talking about feelings than Samuel was, but had paid attention to the things that he liked. Those things she did take care of.

“Snow followed us here, Elizabeth.” Samuel had gotten up to get his coat on and looked out the window. Heavy wet snow was falling. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, two of their favourites, came to their minds at the same time singing “Baby it’s cold outside.”

“Get your coat off, Samuel. No point in you going out in that. You can go in the morning.”

“Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, 

continue firm and constant.”

~ Socrates

Snow Bob and Connie Cloud Visit

Snow Bob and Connie Cloud Visit

Snow Bob loved the quiet dark night. He did miss the children that played with him everyday. They always made sure he had a new scarf, warm mitts and colourful stocking cap on ~ ‘just in case you get too cold’. If Snow Bob could have even chuckled he might have. 

His friend Connie Cloud had the sky all to herself tonight. That always made her happy. Wally Wind must have chased the Cloud Bullies across to the other side of the world. Wally had slowed down to a gentle breeze, just enough to let Connie Cloud’s cape drift behind her.  

“How are you to night, Snow Bob? Aren’t you lonely down there in your pile of snow. “Oh, no, I'm very comfortable. Looking up at the sky to watch for stars. Moon has gone away for a while, but I have you up there to visit with. When a night bird calls, it makes me feel extra specially good. Kind of like hearing the children laugh.” The two friends settled into the soft, crisp winter night. They never had talked a lot, just liked to be beside each other. 

When the children returned in the morning, Snow Bob looked like an ordinary snowman and Connie Cloud was just another cloud in the sky. The children always brought him a new carrot nose, made sure his mitts were on his wire arms and his stocking cap was on straight. In Snow Bob’s snowy heart, he smiled. Connie Cloud sailed happily away with Wally Wind. They both knew that there would be another dark sky night when they would visit again.

”The real test of friendship is: can you literally do 

nothing with the other person? Can you enjoy 

those moments of life that are utterly simple?

~ Eugene Kennedy

Travellers

Gentle flowers ~ 

a testament to a friendship

that has travelled through

places, times and into now.

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…

It has no survival value; rather 

it is one of those things which give value to survival.”

~ C.S.Lewis, The Four Loves

Who Will See Me?

Outside information is always refreshing. But in the Gord Hanson world, there was always a danger of imploding on himself. A small one bedroom apartment on the six floor kept him away from the outside world. Always inside, and by himself, was comfortable but at the end of each day he felt tired. Any new information only came via computer. He didn’t get mail - all his bills came in his email. He ordered food in. He had a complete gym full of equipment that he used religiously every day. He seldom went out to do laundry. Who was going to see him anyway? When he ran out of clothes, he took the back stairs down to the laundry room. A thick sci-fi book with him, he kept his head down to read, hoping no one would come in and bother him.

A knock on his door startled him. He had to buzz people in, they couldn’t just walk up and knock on his door. But there it was - a tiny knock. If he hadn’t been walking by the door, he wouldn’t have heard it. Cautious and curious, he looked through the peephole and could barely see the top of a little blonde head. Making sure the chain was on, he opened his door just a crack. “Hi, mister. My name is Bobby. I live in the next suite. We’re new here and just moved in last weekend. I go to school online. My mom and dad decided to keep me home but I’m bored. They had to go to work and I don’t have anyone to talk to. If I go out on our balcony, would you come out on yours? I’m not supposed to talk to strangers, but then we wouldn’t be strangers.” Gord hesitated, looked up and down the hall and said “Ok.”

~~~~~

Gord and Bobby met everyday after that, at two o’clock sharp. They played games on their computers, Gord helped Bobby with his homework, Bobby told Gord about the outside world. When his parents took him to a park or a beach, Bobby live streamed a video to his friend’s sixth floor apartment. Later they talked about being outside, the sun on the water, the bird’s nests in good climbing trees and walking on the grass. One day, Gord asked Bobby “Do you ever have picnics?” Bobby had gotten used to his friend’s strange ways so wasn’t weirded out by his question. “Sure. Do you want to go on a picnic with us sometime?” Gord was quiet for a long time and said “Yes. Ask your parents if it’s ok and tell me.”

~~~~~

That night, Gord did his laundry.

“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? 

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

~ T.S.Eliot, The Rock

Chapter One, Episode 83 - Chain of Events - Situationally Theirs

Review, Revision, Edit and Update
In revision for Chain of Events, it involved the shifting of sentences within the third paragraph. Rather like moving puzzle pieces. Each sentence was ok, but their placement didn't quite fit nicely. 

I did add detail to several pieces of the dialogue that just seemed suspended in mid air with no attached little animation or thought bubble. These details provided context and clarity to the conversation between Giles, Dez and Emmie.

Chain of Events

Emmie and Dez were out in the garage talking with Giles. Bursts of laughter spilled into the warm spring afternoon. Earlier, they had been in the kitchen having tea with Martha, her long-time friend and Real Estate agent, Gracie, and Elizabeth, the Estate cook. Digby stopped briefly on his way to his office, but didn’t stay long. 

 Giles, chauffeur and mechanic for the Estate wiped the axle grease from his hands and laughingly exclaimed “You can’t be serious are you, Miss Dez?”

“As serious as this Covid virus, Giles. And call me Dez - not Miss Dez. Money was just lying on a desk at the bank that evening. All I wanted was a few coins and some bills.  I couldn’t see anyone around. Then, all of a sudden, I was on the floor and those two goofy security guys were dousing me with Lysol spray. I didn’t know I’d set off a chain of events that would lead me all the way into this garage.”

Thinking aloud, Giles said “So it must have been at the beginning of the pandemic? Right after everything shut down?” Gathering up his tools and putting them away on his tidy workbench, he spoke to Dez “I know those two guys, that’s if it was Stanley and Giovanni. We used to bowl together for what seems years ago but it's really been only about three months. We had our last game the day before all the restrictions hit us.”

Emelina decided to join their easy conversation. “Giles, what do you think of my wayward sister?” 

“Well, she’s not like any other wayward people I know. Sounds like my two friends did a pretty good job of cleaning her up for you. She does seem to be pretty good egg, Miss Emelina.”  Giles stopped Miss Emelina before she had a chance to ask that he drop the 'miss'. “No, I won’t drop the Miss and call you Emmie. I’ll still call you Miss Emelina. You’re still my boss. It was hard enough to learn to call you Miss Emelina when you’d been Mrs. Beaufort since I’d been hired. I’ve finally got used to that change.” Picking up some car wax and a polishing rag, he got to work shining up the Lexus. 

“Now that we have our names straight, what do the two of you think of Martha and Digby getting married?”  Dez was really the newcomer to the Beaufort Estate, so didn’t have the same history that Emmie and Giles did. She only knew that Martha and Digby had been there the longest, longer even than Emmie.  

Emmie spoke up “There was a time when I would have fired them on the spot.” She adopted a pinched and very serious look on her face: “There will be absolutely no fraternization between staff members.” Her face relaxed into a smile.

“And now?” Dez and Giles spoke at once. 

“Now, I just think it’s wonderful.” Emmie tilted her head to one side, thought a moment and continued. “They have been such good friends and all those rules belong to Michael’s mother. She did try hard to be Lady of the Manor. She passed on years ago and Michael, good son that he was, kept those rules in memory of her. I’m not sure he ever believed in them though, at least with this staff. I suppose it is a wise idea in many situations. All our rules on this Estate have been tossed up in the air like a deck of cards and we’re left to put them all back together again, keeping the ones that are still useful and dispensing with the ones that are just no longer useful.”

Dez stood up straight hearing her big sister speaking from her heart. Giles stopped polishing the hood of the Lexus, his arm still in position. “That’s quite an answer Miss Emelina. But you’re right. There was a time when you definitely wouldn’t have been here at the garage unless it was to…no, you would have rung your little bell and sent someone else - Brigitte, Martha, maybe even Cook to ‘fetch’ me.”

Dez interrupted the bumpy trip down memory lane: “Let’s get back to Martha and Digby. You two are getting far too serious. Do either of you really think that Digby should buy that cottage for Martha?” Dez had been let in on the wedding present secret. Even so, she was still not quite sure how or where she fit in on the Estate. She was never sure whether asking questions was the right thing to do.

Giles had resumed his polishing of the Lexus, moving around to the passenger side of the vehicle. From his bent position, he called out “What I know of Digby, and we’ve become quite good friends, when Digby makes his mind up about something it gets done. Yes he does investigate all the angles but makes sure they fit with his plans." He stood up. "This one has been a tough one for him. Appointments with his financial advisor. Research into the most qualified Real Estate agent. Poring through city records to make certain the cottage is sound. I'm sure he's not done yet."

“Speaking of Digby, your phone is buzzing and ‘Digby’ shows up on the caller ID.” Dez handed Giles his cell phone that had been lying on the tool bench. 

Giles quickly wiped his hands on the polish cloth and took the phone from Dez. “James. Hello. What can I do for you?”……….I’m just out here in the garage with Dez and Miss Emelina………Sure, I can take a break……Just a minute…….” Giles turned to Miss Emelina. “Can I take the Honda for a while? James wants to take a drive.”…….He turned back to his cell phone. “Yes Miss Emelina said she won’t need me. She and her sister are driving into town in Dez's car, to check on some supplies they ordered for the orchard……….Just give me about ten minutes while I put things away in here and I’ll be right in .”

“Is everything all right, Giles?” Emmie was concerned. She desperately hoped that there would be no health problems for either Martha or Digby.

Giles noticed a frown creasing Emmie's brow. “Don’t you worry, Miss Emelina. James is fine. He’s just got something that needs working out and he needs a friend to bounce things off of. We’ll go for a drive - a long drive. He sounded pretty serious.”

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, 

like art….It has no survival value; rather it is 

one of those things which give value to survival.”

~ C.S.Lewis, The Four Loves

Talking Points and Golf

“Absolution is not removal of responsibility for the future. Like a bank savings account where a withdrawal can be made whenever you see the need.”

“Well, I’m not a priest so I have never known the finer details. You know, the differences between forgiveness and absolution. It’s never, ever made sense to me. Not only am I not a priest, I have no ties to any religious order, nor do I want any.”

“Even though I’ve tried - and tried - to explain it to you, Jeremy?”

Jeremy shook his head and laughed. “Still doesn’t make sense. Have you got your clubs with you?”

“Of course. I never go anywhere without them. By the way, our tee time is in……Father Mike glanced at his watch……..an hour. Finish up your drink and let’s get going. It’s bit of a drive to the golf course.”

Jeremy and Father Mike had had this conversation many times. Both of them held fast to their beliefs. Friends since kindergarten, they grew in stature and interests. Although, they took different career paths, maintained regular visits. As each of them traveled and technology took hold of the world, they had long phone conversations. Phones gave way to Skype to Facetime. Their ‘good old long talks’ stayed long and very often the world’s ills, while challenging, were certainly not cured. 

On this afternoon, they were both in the same city for coinciding conferences. When they discovered this marvellous opportunity, an extended golfing vacation was in order. They always picked up where they left off from their last conversation. Many years before, after a vicious physical fight the two twenty something friends had had over the religious vs secular aspects of their beliefs, the two friends had called it quits. But, sitting on the ground, bruised and dirty, one of them - and neither remembers who laughed first - started to chuckle. The chuckle turned to deep belly laughs until they were both in tears. In the dust and dirt of this very unfriendly fight they shook hands and promised each other that they would not let their opinions divide them.

“Mike, did you read any headlines this morning? It’s International Women’s Day. What does your Vatican think of that? Women are going to take over the world someday. They’ll run the place and we can golf all we want.”

“Jeremy, you just won’t call me by my clerical name! Why is that? International Women’s Day! Where did that come from? I’ve got five sisters and I work with a lot of nuns. What do you mean ‘they will run the world’? It feels like women have always been running my life.”

“So where are we going for dinner after this game? Is there a good pub in this neighbourhood?”

Their voices drifted on the afternoon breeze. If you listened closely, eventually there was the click of a driver on a little white ball. Then laughter and “Man! Look at that ball fly!”

“A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.”

~ Jim Morrison

Cheers!! - CHEERS ~ Theme for January 2020

At the beginning of each month, I choose a new theme for my writings. I’m not always successful in capturing the theme I’ve chosen, however I always enjoy the word crafting. Each January, the theme is rather more important. 'Cheers' is the word of the day for New Year’s gatherings. It’s also a word heard at banquet tables, at bars or between friends around the kitchen table at any time of the year. I like to think that cheer is somewhat attainable for us all, especially when coming out of dark times. For some, times and situations are very dark, when hope seems to have been merely a dream. So I say 'Cheers!' to everyone for this New Year that we may all find our way, backlit by friendship, fellowship and good cheer.

Come forward……

Health and wealth……

Energy that hasn’t existed…..

Enthusiasm builds slowly……

Renewal and rest are……

Substitutions for last year’s….

“Each age has deemed the new-born year 

The fittest time for festal cheer.”
~ Sir Walter Scott