sunsets and treasure chests

It’s now Sunday evening and another weekend is sinking like a sunset on the horizon. I’m glad I stayed on land today – a rarity for me on a perfectly gorgeous day off, but a change was long overdue. A routine is good but so is variation; like my head, the garden needed a good weeding. After spending much of the day knee deep in tree limbs, uncut grass and (need I say) little rotting Spanish Lime bombs, I drove 23 miles up the Keys to Mom & Don’s house. She and I watched a late afternoon movie rental and ate ice cream. It was delicious – so was the vanilla Haagen Dass.

Travelling south on US-1 from Cudjoe Key to Key West is mostly west in direction. The firey orange ball dropped about 10 minutes before I left their house so I got a fantastic light show heading home. A lightning storm far away over the open ocean was an added bonus to the drive. As the sky grew heavy with shadows the more pronounced the sun’s afterglow became. Three or four pelicans in formation glided parallel to my little car long enough for the word
“w o w” to escape on exhale.

The sun glides across the sky at the same speed all day long, but you can see it fading fast at the very end. I guess that’s what life’s like at the end, too. We take for granted all the healthy days not knowing how precious every moment of every day is. And then the realization starts to sink in -- this is it and there’s no turning back. And then sometimes we’re lucky enough to get a few days away from the hospital, to sleep in our own bed for a change, to hear rain falling on our back porch and to smell the mangrove blossoms. It’s in these few days that we take inventory of our lives and realize that the possessions of our obsessive nature mean nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada. True value is measured by what’s in our hearts – the treasure in our chests. The love of family, friends and even bystanders is the measure of our wealth, and our cup runnith over.

Thank you again for continued thoughts and prayers. We’re not out of the woods yet – two more chemo treatments to go. Although Gloria is home, she sleeps a lot and Don has taken the ringer off the telephone. You may not be able to talk to her directly, but do leave a message. She hears you.