Mortgaging My Soul, Once Again

A stroll through the life of a soulless wanderer is sometimes what I feel like.

Tonight I am sitting here waiting for my phone to ring letting me know some wonderful news from the ‘Southland’, Florida.

The call hasn’t come as I anxiously worked through my day wanting some news to brighten this mostly cloudy dark day. In Alaska now we are only about 10 days away from winter’s Solstice, the shortest ‘day’ of the year. Our daylight hours will only be just over 5 hours. With first light arriving around ten o’clock in the morning and the sun just barely rising above the mountaintops makes the ‘day’ seem somewhat out of place. The horizon sun as we call it here during this time of year just makes a small arc about 2 inches about the horizon mountaintops. The distance the sun travels will only be about 18 inches from the point it rose and will settle back under in only about five hours. Darkness quickly settles in and the feeling of this special place is one of wonder being able to experience this.

At home now a long forgotten memory came rushing back immediately when my eye caught sight of the pictures on my wall. It was in my office that I surround myself with pictures of my past. There are pictures of my family, fun times fishing here in Alaska, and some of days gone by when I used to fly hang gliders and hot air balloons for a living.

Oh wait . . . phone is ringing . . .

No, false alarm.

Tonight one of the few items in the room I was mesmerized by as I passed the time waiting on the phone call from my wife and daughter was a picture of my daughter and I on the beach taken last January. A different time now as the months have passed and my ‘little’ girl has slowly filled the time becoming a “mommy”. There is just something about that concept that changes inside you that is hard to explain. Maybe textured memories flood your brain with all that had been with your ‘little girl” shortly becoming a mother in her own right. Several different ‘tunes’ fill my head but that distinct tune that brings a smile is “Ripplin’ Waters” by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. It is always there, in "my" mind, a wonderful representation for me of the time spent in dancing with my two daughters when they were little.

I share this with all the excitement of someone who rediscovers a fond memory some 22 years later. And with that, grandpa pulled the music box within his brain out of the cabinet, turned it on, and closed my eyes waiting for the good news. I wound it up and listened; its tune washed over me as if it were only yesterday since I last heard it.

I'm dancing with my girls again.

This is not my first grand child, this is number 4 and number 5 is on the way but it is still special for me.

Oh wait . . . phone is ringing . . .

Ice

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