Thursday, August 28, 2008

A Canyon Full of Memories

How can one space in the world create so many memories?
So many hopes?
So many dreams?
"Angie, my dad says, wake up and get your sister"
"Jenny, I whisper, wake up"
She opens her eyes
The smell of her room
Her strawberry shortcake bedding
The smell of her baby fine hair
Its Saturday and dad is in the kitchen warming up those little mini cinnamon buns with just a touch of butter
Mom is sleeping but Jenny and I creep in to catch a peek before we get dressed
We're almost dressed now
Me in my faded jeans, tshirt, patchwork jacket and wallabies
Jenny in her lil' jean zip up jumper and wallabies to match mine
We are so excited we dont event recall the drive
As dad opens the car doors and exclaims "Ok, girls, we're here!"
As we begin to walk down the path, I look at Jenny
She is so little
I love her so
She grabs my hand as my dad turns to see us I see his mustache curl up as he smiles
"Stop!"he yells
"shhhhhhhhhhhh, dont move"
Jenny and I can hardly breathe....ba bum ba bum ba bum - our hearts are pounding
He reaches for a twig
We all crouch down
I see the sun glimmer through the trees as the sun catches the spiders web my dad was about to awaken
The smells of the canyon rush through my senses
Fresh
Woody
Clean
Bark
Wet
Dirt
Leaves
Pond
I cherish that moment to this day
As my dad nelt down, he began to take the twig and bat at the dewy spiders web
Jenny and I sat in amazement as a big, black, hairy spider arose from its hollow
Now we must continue on our journey
Leaves cover the path at our feet as we kick our way down the path
We arrive at a clearing
The famous rope swing!
Dad takes the first go
Back and forth he swings
I let go of Jenny's hand knowing I must be brave and go next
As I reach for the swing I feel the coarse rope like the fur of a cow
"One, two, three!", dad yells
I let go and sail through the air
Across the ground and over the rushing brook below
I touch back down along the bank and without a word my dad hands my sister to me and says
"One, two, three!"
As we flew through the air together I remember feeling
Even as a small child
we are so lucky
I bet no one else has a life as good as this

2 comments:

Melissa said...

Oh Bun..I love this post...you should have told me to check it...really beautiful writing..get to your book!!
Love, Mel

linda said...

Hey. This one was real special. You are so lucky to have a dad like you do. Those memories are worth much more than a cool billion dollars. How could money buy those things? Can't happen. Enjoy being blessed, because you really are. Love you, Auntie Lin