TROUBLE SAYING: “GOODBYE”.

If you rise up early in the morning in Burbank, California, you need to go sit in a lounge chair and bask in the rising sun slowly ascending into the azure sky and feel the warmth brushing your face as you close your eyes and detach yourself from the outside world.

As the sun slowly warms you from the cool night air, painting your face a sudden sense of dreamlike tranquility arresting you into a submission of suspended consciousness, closing out the world. The gentle harping of the birds singing their songs the same notes playing out, the whispering of the leaves through the wind repeating a sonnet of soft cadence to the morning arising.

The mind drifts away into a nether world of anticipated calm, a single engine plane slowly plying the sky with its monotonic tones as it crosses overhead, slowly lulling you sleep. It is no longer part of the outside world, but this serene world you have created.

Your mind slips ever deeper into the slumber of peace and tranquility filling your soul while holding you like a cradled child. Your mind suddenly hears and sees only the quiet sun as you bask, yet your eyes are closed.

Once you have caught the last hours of your Southern California visit, you head inside and say goodbye to those you love in the world you cherish for soon you will leave on a jet plane, hurtling through the midnight sky to home and reality. No more will you hear the sweet young voice that calls out: “Grandpa! Come play with me.” You will miss the bouncing cherub with the perpetual smile and easy calmness of the infant as Shakespeare once said; ‘mulling and puking’, this time in his grandpa’s arms.

The further you fly away, more is the echo of your time spent with the grandchildren, ripping your heart and soul from your skeletal structure as you must now bide for a later time, a time that you hope will come.