meanwhile back in the Keys…

Hi! How are you? How’s Gloria? Ugh… press rewind and repeat. Gloria is on day 4 of 7 and she’s (dramatic pause, look them in the eye and continue)… she’s wearing an armor of wit. Her laughs are long and heartfelt and her one-liners wickedly delicious. No cracks in those defending walls.

A day back in town and the boys have the work schedule well taken care of. Holly is a gem – she’s learning how I think & what needs to be done to keep the store running. I’ve taught her well. My goal is to work myself out of a job in that the company runs smoothly without me, but we’re not there yet. I aspire to be captain of the Starship Enterprise – on the bridge only when required but always in the loop. I’m most like Number One though, the hands on operation guy always everywhere all the time. A distinctive quality, but my Achilles’ heel. When will I learn blue isn’t red? When will I allow myself to be Picard and rise above the daily “must do this, gotta do that” mentality? Letting go is the hardest part, and I’m just not there yet; on many levels.

Papa is a grumpy old man – an 86 year old example of not wanting to accept change in anything. I’m stumped as to the rhyme or reason he and I click, but we do and so it is. I sat down with him Friday to tell him the bad news. Dreadfully, I pulled up a chair and held his hand. The hot wind blew strongly thru the only open window and his long graying hair whisked forward. Tears rolled as I struggled with the lump in my throat and then most amazing thing happened. He reached across the table and with the napkin in his hand he dabbed my cheek, wiping dry the visible anguish. Woah! I even said it aloud because it was powerfully delicate moment between a grand dad & his first born grand daughter. How lucky am I to have had that moment? How could a curmudgeon render such compassion? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop? If you are comfortable with the unanswerable in this world then be still with it and let it go… It’s okay to not know.