As I said last time, I am alone in my little home on the Garden Route, W. Cape, because Best Beloved is in Zambia with CfaN. This means that there is a lot of time for contemplation and meditation, and I’m fascinated by what swirls up from my subconscious in the quietness.
For instance, what is it that makes both our house on the St Johns AND our house in Wilderness, HOME? I have realized afresh that a house becomes a home when memories take up residence and has nothing to do with the décor that we too often spend a fortune on, mostly to impress others, I think.
When we downsized here and moved from the mountain to the valley, I was relieved to find that although many precious memories were left in the walls of Bergen, the stories attached to the things we brought with us into Fynbos made it HOME the moment we unpacked the boxes. And some old memories have been dusted off to be mulled over.
Like Pete, our friend Bruce was an avid hang glider. The two of them shared many stories around our table, bonding as only pilots can 😊! He was also a wonderful sculptor, and I still cherish the times we spent in his studio as he showed me the process from clay to cast bronze. So I treasure these elegant kudus of his here in my lounge, enthralled at how skillfully he captured their eager bodies in flight through the bush.
But the hang glider was always there, hovering over every conversation with its promise of vistas yet to be experienced, of stories yet to be told. I still remember the terrible day we heard that he had crashed badly. When the doctors explained the extent of his injuries to him, and that he would need a ventilator for the rest of his days just to breathe, he chose to take the final flight - up into the arms of the Father he knew and loved. I remember you Bruce…
Memories are powerful but the amazing thing is that they are so easy to forget, so easy to allow the busyness of life to dull even the most precious of past experiences. So today I sit in my chair with my cup coffee and let my eyes rest on objects around me, one by one, and remind myself of the things that continue to make my life rich with memories and stories yet to be told 😊!
