I dreaded that eight hours of driving in less than 24 hours… yet I would not want to live with the regret the cost of such small discomfort and miss another day not seeing my mother or not be there for my niece Ariana as she tries so hard to follow her music passion.
Eight hours driving offers a lot of time to think about life and such things. Life does go by swiftly and yet it goes by slowly. It feels like all the running around is meaningless or is it the meaning that we give to the running around?
The weariness of all that driving melted away once I saw my mother, reminding me of how precious life is. Mami had the afternoon already planned, with a stop for lunch at El Guajiro for a bit of Dominican Republic cuisine.
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It’s almost sad to even comment… so here in full disclosure, we get so conditioned to our every day routine that we overlook the pleasure of being around our family. Their smiles, their voice…, so much we take for granted.
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Imagine if we could be so eager to show such warm affections as our beloved family mascot Heidi, I would love to bottle that affection and keep in in my heart and retrieve whenever I am homesick for the affections of my mother and our beloved Heidi.
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My nieces Chantelle and Rachelle have grown so much since our last visit… with the dyed hair and beautifully applied make-up, I had to be reminded that they were way into their teens!
With only a 24 hour visit, and the purpose was to support Ariana who was singing at an “Open Mic” event there was so little time and so much to catch up. It was like a speed dial visit. She sang her latest song: Take Me
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Frankie drove us to Tea and Poets – that’s the name of the venue in South Miami. Being that it was the weekend, as soon as the sun set the crowd began to grow.
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When she stepped down, they were advised that the next artist was delayed, so I was brave and said perhaps I could read a poem… I mean, this was a Poet and Tea place? I’ve never done an ‘Open Mic’… I was very surprised that the audience stopeed to listen, and here it is:
Mami bought me a Dominican cake and with every little bite we ate together, we told stories, we laughed and shared our dreams. One of the amusing stories was of Xenon the family cat. Chantelle was stuck on the idea of having a cat, and a friend had a cat who had babies and offered her one of the off-springs. Chantelle, thought it was a girl and named it Xena… soon after they discovered otherwise. They are now of the opinion that Xenon was not very happy with the manicured nails.
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And just like that… those 24 hours filled my cup. So it comes down to not time but quality. The importance of making an effort to share the best and lift each other because we never know when it will be our last hello, our last hug, our last goodbye.
