Plain 'ole Pigeon

As I lay on grass pool side gazing into the sky a bird flew directly overhead and as the sunlight shone the wings there was an iridescent translucent green glow. I thought "wow - what kind of bird is that??!!".  I turned around to look behind me to watch it as it landed to get a sip of water from a puddle and I saw that it was a "plane 'ole pigeon"- so beautiful!

"I picked a bad day to come"...

It was the Monday of the end of the girl's trip to St. Peterburg Florida. B. and I had checked out of the hotel; A. was upstairs sleeping in until her later flight.  B. had gone off to get some coffee.  I was sitting on the bench right outside of the hotel front door, waiting for my ride to the airport, enjoying the quiet early morning, soaking in the sea air and the last quiet moments of vacation.  A young family came walking out of the hotel front door; parents with two young boys about the ages of 4 and 7.  The father noticed a cockroach on the ground in front of them and pointed it out to the boys - they were so excited!  The youngest one without hesitation ran over to me put his hand on my leg and grabbed my hand to come see it - he was so ecstatic he couldn't contain himself!  It was such an incredibly sweet moment and it touched my heart. I was happy to walk over with him and check out the bug.  I thanked him for showing me this exciting critter. I marveled at his enthusiasm. The mom said "I'm sorry",  I said "No, this is great!".  When the excitement of the cockroach citing was over I went back to my bench, the family continued to explore the hotel driveway.  Their car arrived, and as I was looking off into the sky watching some seabirds flying by, the mom called out "Have a good day!" - she had made a special point to call out to me.  I think she was thankful of the graciousness of the moment. 

Later that day...after arriving home I decided to go swimming at Deep Eddy Pool.  It was early in the day and a Monday I thought it would probably be a nice quiet day at the pool, even though it was officially summer and the kids were out of school.  I got a front parking spot in the shade - yes, it'd be good.  As I approached the entrance way I saw a long line of about 15 kids all the age of about 6 obviously part of a group outing.  Then a school bus pulled up!  Oh no, another group - I thought "I picked a bad day to come", "I should just turn around now and come back another day (I had two more days off of work - and could come then)".  I hesitated but decided to ahead and go in.  I settled into a spot on the grass at the adult end of the pool.  As I looked around I noticed the adult side of the pool was quite full - then I noticed the kid's side was completely empty and all of the kids were on the adult side.  What?  Then I overheard the people next to me talking about some sort of "incident" in the kid's side of the pool and they were now draining that side.  And evidently  this was a very recent development.  Oh man "I picked a bad day to come! I can't believe this.  Oh well, I'll hang out for a bit then leave".  Within 15 minutes I noticed the crowd starting to dissipate.  And within 30 minutes about 80% of the crowd had left and what remained was a small quiet group. I congratulated myself for hanging in there because now it was even quieter than usual!  Maybe I didn't pick such a bad day after all.  A bit later I noticed over in the corner of the pool a man was being transferred from a wheelchair into a mechanical chair that was attached to the pool (Deep Eddy has two mechanical chairs that lower those with disabilities into the water) - and he was lowered into the water.  He was blond with extremely fair skin- he obviously did not see the sun very often.  There was a beautiful lady accompanying him who seemed to about the same age as he.  At first sight I wondered if she was his caretaker, physical therapist, friend, sister, lover/partner, or some combination.  But I quickly noticed how much love she showed him and I knew she was more than just a caretaker/physical therapist.  Once in the water she wrapped her arms under is underarms as he faced up toward the sky.  She sat still with him for a bit (she was in the shallowest lane so she could stand easily) then began pulling him through the water.  He was thrilled!  Every now and then he would hoop and holler - for a flash moment I wondered if that was a good thing or a bad thing then I would see the lady with the hugest grin on her face every time he made this sound - so I knew it was a good thing.  There was so much joy and love shining through both of them I could barely behold it.  I was in awe and I could not stop watching, nor could I stop tearing up.  When they would rest and sit still for a bit he would just stare into the sky soaking in the beauty.  I was soaking in the beauty of the moment.  They stayed for quite a long while.  When it came time to leave and he was back in his wheelchair on the ground she stood facing him - he had his arms outreached as far as they'd go with his head thrown back staring at the sky.  I don't know if this position was due his lack of body control or his intentional position but she stood facing him and doing the same posture - she spread her arms wide and gazed up at the sky soaking it all in.  How beautiful!  Then she leaned over and wrapped her arms around him to give him a hug.  With a bit of effort he was able to get one arm to come up and around her back, then with continued effort and time he managed to get his other arm to go around her. My tears came again and I was so incredibly grateful for being able to witness this beauty.   "I picked a good day to come"...