Continued

and then there was...

Merrick has taken up yoga. He found that the quiet of a darkened studio and all the new shapes he was trying to master had helped in his creative process. He had prepared well for the busy season. His designs had started to bend, they looked more appealing and less rigid. Seeing his remaining works scattered through the store when he took in the next consignment lot, gave him the satisfaction of a year of hard learning. Rewards come in different packages.

Ollie helped him carry in the merchandise some days. The pieces that needed 2 people to make it through the door. One holding the door, one squeezing through. Some months ago, there had almost been a disaster, which would have cost Ollie more than his pride. The toupée was put away forever.

He had been fortunate in having a long term career and now appreciated the benefits of a guaranteed pension. He looked forward to helping his son occasionally, it was nice sometimes to have a break from retirement.

At his farewell event, which he had requested be kept simple, he was applauded for his contribution to decades of students. Ollie had never coveted the limelight, he appreciated the kind words but was relieved when the night was over. His rewards for his long service came at the unexpected meeting with old students. The ones he had “pulled from the brink”, the undesirables, the unlikely and the just plain odd.

For the most part, he was happy. He had a number of books, that he had shelved for this future.

The curly haired girl spent some dramatic months with a man with a white truck and a temper. Big vehicles and short fuses are rarely a good combination. She had been caught up for a while in how wonderful they looked together, sort of like beauty and the beast.

You would think that she had learned something by now, but her barriers were solid and thick, she was not going to give them up easily.

Several times she had picked up her phone to contact Merrick, but each time she knew that he wouldn’t have changed.

The Story - today

I too, have wondered what has happened to these people:

 Grace hadn’t reached for the Teddy Bear in a long time. He had been a gift, along with a “easy” wine bottle opener. The colleague had recognized what she would need as she faced the divorce.

The Teddy had instantly been given the name Dexter, his horn-rimmed glasses and bow tie and vest, left room for no other consideration. Then that horrible TV show came out, Dexter the Murderer; blood, slashing, knives, weird, weird, weird. She had gently placed the Bear on a shelf in her cupboard. He was at this time, Nameless.

She and Grace became friends.Through the spring and summer and now at the tail end of the year, they coffee-d and attended continuing education classes, dropped in to free events at the local library and talked.

In spite of the seventeen years between them (years that conceivably create a whole grown up person), they enjoyed eachother’s company. Their lives started to mesh, the painful void that each had been feeling, started to ebb. (It was a consistent but not overwhelming friendship. Days and sometimes weeks went by, when neither made contact. But when a plan was made, it stuck, it was sacred.)

Her sadness was replaced with optimism and the light became so much brighter at the end of the tunnel.

She made dinner once in awhile for Ollie. She tried out new recipes and bought a new slow cooker. Last time it was, Cranberry Chickpea Curry . Ollie appreciated her attempts and ate it all. He always brought flowers and dark chocolate with nuts for dessert. He had now permanently removed the bad-fitting toupée.

The Story - repeated

If you didn't have a chance to see this Story unfold, here are the posts all in one spot.

The characters in our lives are our companions on a journey that we are in together.
We act together in unison without having conscious knowledge.

The Ripple of our Life - Grassi Lakes, Canmore

Our stories have no beginning and no end. It’s mysterious, and downright spooky sometimes how people come into and then leave your life. Sometimes they travel great distances with you, and sometimes you are connected and don’t even know it. The joy of connection cannot be forced, it is magical, it is unexpected, it is to be celebrated.

That is how the curly haired girl, Merrick, Grace, Ollie and She that we all know came to be. But even make believe characters take a break.

We all need to redefine, and reemerge into something new. At times we are forced into it, whether it be the end of a work term, a health crisis or a pending divorce. But we are always given the gift to choose our reaction, and the ability (however difficult) to step back and consciously set our next path.



Choosing our Reaction - Grassi Lakes, Canmore

Act

No Longer an Act
Grace
Blown in Glass
Transparent Houses
Ollie
Her
Reflected in Coffee
Clouded Poetry
Turning Back the Pages of Time
Crumpled dreams
Some kind of progress