Something Lovely

By Margaret O’Brien

Mariana has just called me to ask me to write something…anything…something lovely….and what she did not know was that I am in the middle of recovering from jetlag and seem to be more asleep than awake.

I have just returned from visiting my mother in Brisbane, Australia. She has just turned 95 years old and is still amazing. Her mental faculties are as youthful and sharp as ever, her memory better than mine, and though her body is now small and somewhat frail, and she has myriad health issues, she has the determination to live and she has learned to live entirely in the present moment.

Still living in her own home, she has the support of a wonderful neighbor, my brother and sister and other relatives who call and check on her daily. And most of all, she has her ‘bingo’ friends. She goes out 5 days out of every 7, the importance of which cannot be overestimated in her case. Her need for socialization and familiar faces is all important, and because of her age and determination to keep on keeping on with her life, she is well-respected and looked after by her different friends wherever she goes.

I wanted to go to the beach…badly wanted to go to the beach….my inner child wanted to feel the ocean once again, the rippling of the water around my feet and the sand squishing underfoot. I looked out at the ocean and breathed a simple prayer… “Thank you, God.” Thank you for the opportunity to see loveliness and beauty, to feel love, and to be love…to be the living candle of love as beloved Lanello would say.

While I was standing and walking in the water, I was at perfect peace, and now have a special place to visit when I need to go within and remember how much God loves me, and each and every one of us, how we are given the opportunity to fulfill our psychological and spiritual needs in due course of time, layer upon layer.

We both cried, my mother and I, as I said, not goodbye, but ‘see you later.’ Parting is such sweet sorrow.