As the Bulldog Keeps Surfing

Thoughts About Cupcakes

The wedding ring stands out from his hand. He sits alone…bringing to the table a small oval container with two iced cupcakes whose colours are as gentle as butterflies. He waits. On the diagonal a family sits…Dad, son, grandson, grandmother and. daughter-in-law. The elder face familiar to me but it is a reach to find in these 40 – 50 years passed. In this place of echoes one cannot help but overhear pieces of good conversation… Memorial Arena is heard…perhaps there…perhaps another time?

And there I was at that arena, where so much of youth passed…time with my own family. Globetrotters, Ice Capades, lacrosse…hockey…but not the bands but oh so how the bands played. Loud they were – my first exposure to the adrenalin of harder rock…Bachman-Turner Overdrive and then to Rush, Max Webster, Triumph, Zon, Van Halen, Heart…

Sitting alone, Granddad and his cupcakes, I sense loss as he waits but then…on this the best of days – he is not forever alone…a family comes together – perhaps minus one – but still – son, daughter-in-law and two girls whose destiny is cupcakes. Grandad’s expression turns gentle with happy smiles. Part of him has become whole again. Being alone always makes me reflective – observation makes me take sense of place and time. Seeing families together helps harness the years passed and to acknowledge the generations to follow. Be together and be well…these are the times we can remember…gentle things these powdered wings.

Having worked, this day, through the loss of my favorite breakfast hash I have chosen the Healthy Start as thoughts come to me. Today’s designated path will continue as I walk with my other through the gentle heat of life as butterflies pass by my person bringing calm to my beating heart. Each step of time I watch as others share the day. And yet with each step I think upon those no longer by our side, Mum, Dad…grandparents…family…the cats…the dogs…friends at arenas. Thoughts arrive like butterflies but don’t chase them away…hold them – as the bulldog keeps surfing.