On Mother's Day

March 03, 2010

This blog is about just one of those times when we may meet someone and possibly never see them again. Like many of these stories, they’re just fun to remember and to write about.

Late one morning after the workings of the past late evening including a few morning, noon and nights before, I was resting so quietly on the hard flat comforts of the floor when all of a sudden, a soft knock; once, twice, three times.
The three delicate knocks on the door were followed by an even softer hello.

A few seconds after being awoken so quickly but quietly, I cleared the sandy eyes of the faint sleep dust that gathered in the past few hours. I was trying to catch up on a little rest from lack of sleep due to the design deliriums that happened with the passing of three days and nights, give or take an hour or two.

The home was just off a two-lane country road; an out of the way place. No one had to stop there unless their vehicle broke down or something leads them to enter the long driveway and on to the front door like when asking for directions.
When first moving into the place the owners said this happened once in a while.

After looking into the bright sunlit morning towards the soft, tender voice still beyond the curtains, I heard another kind hello. The vision of a young woman with a big, wide smile came into focus as I opened the door a slight sliver while searching from whence the friendly sounding voice had come. It was an Angel.

I opened the door all the way still unaware of the waking up appearance.

She smiled broadly, gazed at the disheveled sight before her and asked, “Are you the person who does those cool paintings hanging on the walls outside? While still rubbing the bright sunlight from mmy eyes I sleepily mumbled a, quiet yes.

At first I thought I was still dreaming. Her manner was very kind and out of the way friendly. She wore a delicate pink flower on top of her long, blond braided hair. It was kept well back beyond her silky smooth and quite sensuous face.

We didn’t exchange pleasantries nor ask each other’s name at first. The art was the question answered quickly and gladly; with sand still in sleepy eyes. At this point exchanging names still hadn’t occurred to us until much later in our visit. Although I did think during the ongoing conversation that this stranger has no name. Who are we was the question that wasn’t answered until much later.

As you can imagine, I wasn’t quite all with it as of yet. She began to say while pointing towards the driveway and the wall to the left of mme that she passed here a lot on her way to school. She often wondered who did the paintings that stood in her glare as she passed. I’ve never seen paintings like that, she said.

She continued talking about the display affecting her in such a way she thought to stop every time she passed. She didn’t because mostly she was late for class. She had it in her mind that one day she might take the chance to reach for an answer. Today was that special day; a Saturday; no school was to stop her query.

Of course I had to admit to her that it was moi. I asked her if she’d like to take a closer look; perhaps see more of the work. She said with a most polite voice, Yes, I’d love for you to show mme more, thank you. No sooner said then done; thanks for stopping by with your interest; was the response. I had bare feet on hot rocks.

“Hold on a minute, please give mme a little time to flood mmy face with water, put on shoes and I’ll be right out,” I said. It took three minutes to open face pores while trying to be presentable enough so as to not offend whoever this was.

Opening the door again while apologising for the time gone by I took the first step to guide her out the door and to the left. A painting titled, ‘Community of Cultures’ was hanging on the outside garage wall close by. We stood there for about fifteen minutes while discussing it, her and all our work in general.

All through our conversation she had a glow of youthful anticipation. I was in wonder of her visit and amazed at how this young woman had the courage to not only stop for a peek but to also accept a further tour from basically a stranger. I was glad the art had sparked her interest while projecting a spirit of friendship. I guessed at this point that she hadn’t seen the movie Psycho.

Bizarre as how such things seem now a days as far as talking to strangers is concerned, especially young women and older men strangers in particular. Mind you we were out in the country, flowers in bloom, we had a beautiful day and we both could hear the herd of cows that grazed about fifty feet from us.

In other words the situation didn’t seem threatening, at least to neither of us. Bonnie and Clyde could have come to mmy mind but it didn’t. Needless to say I was glad to see that the negative news of the world didn’t interfere with our being alone with her inquisitiveness and sense of adventure. It was too early for mme to care otherwise and the visitor didn’t appear to be mmy worst nightmare.

While being conscious of a safe distance, I welcomed her with a smile while thanking her for the gracious visit and warm persona under such circumstances. I excused mmyself, walked inside to bring her something as a gift for just having the guts to stop and for being very neighborly-like and complimentary.

I handed her a MMusic – MMedicine For Healing poster as well as a few magnetic business cards and a stack of self printed greeting cards to peruse. Each card had different digital mmusic designs on the front. She flipped through all of them and asked to have several she was fond of. If you really like them, OK, I said.

I also let her choose as gifts, a few post cards and one other greeting card also to her liking. After seeing the ‘Song of Prays’ greeting card she said it was her favourite design and that she’d give that one to her mom today.. I flashed on mmy mother’s face as this particular card like many had a little story.

Mom had passed a few years earlier and for some strange reason after the visitor said this I thought of her visit as a gift sent from mom. One never no’s, eh? The reason I thought the card she loved was very special and apropos when considering the day was mostly because a few people have seen a cameo in it.

Not everyone can say they see it really because it’s one of those hidden kinds of shapes. It was one of those designs when first creating it I thought mmy mmom’s presence was in its original creation; although I really had no idea at the time how that particular shape happened. It wasn’t until later that it was discovered and pointed out to mme by someone else. I remember creating it and it fit perfect

I’ve since asked other people without pointing it out if in fact they see her; some can’t, even to this day. After explaining this to the visitor the same way, without pointing it out, she saw it while pointing it out as well. It’s a gift when that happens because it doesn’t happen all the time really.

She then said, “I’ll give this to mmy mmom today. That day she said was Mother’s Day May 13th, 2007. She touched mmy heart. Maybe it was a dream. Her name was Sarah.

Thanks mom.