Living Until You Die-When Love Overwhelms Me

It has been almost a year since I moved into my house. I know my neighbor felt some happiness and pain as she sold me her mother's house. Her mother had died. I am the new tenant.

She not only left me a clean, orderly house, she left extras. The mat in front of the front door. The lacy window curtains--waterproof-- over the window in the shower. The egg holder in the cleaned refrigerator. Just little things. But I felt so welcome to the new (to me) house.

Even then, she was fighting cancer. She didn't have much energy. But she left me a clean, welcoming house.

Now, in the fourth year of her battle, she is losing. Her husband has taken off six weeks to stay with her. She still gets up and out as she can to tend her garden, to welcome so many coming by to see her.

I see a lot from my screened front porch.

The other day, we had a break in the sometimes stormy weather, and he wheeled her out to the end of the block in her wheelchair.

They made it to the corner and turned back. When they reached my yard, her husband called, "Charlotte, shut your eyes!"

He stepped into my yard to cut a spray of blooming red roses, and scraped the thorns, then handed them to his wife, so tenderly.

I called out,"I won't hide my eyes. It is good for mature women to see romance."

And in a strong voice , his wife replied,"Yes, it is."

She lifted her roses to sniff.

And we all laughed, and he wheeled her home.

And my eyes stung.

New Mexico sunset

I want to draw attention to some extraordinary photography of an awe-inspiring New Mexico sunset.

Clairz put some exceptional pictures up.

I literally gasped when I saw these. And remember when you view: I could be there, seeing sights like these, but five faces I love keep me here.

Seminal Oregon

Huh. When I wrote for a newspaper, I had 150,000 readers. Now I am concerned by the expectations of 15 or so per day.

And that is good. Maybe I need to focus more on the fewer rather than the more.

I haven't written about Oregon. I wrote about my expectations. I suppose one would suppose that since I haven't written about it, the experience failed my expectations. Far from it.

It was seminal, and yes, I just looked up the word to make sure I was using it accurately. It changed my world view in a major way.

As beautiful as the west part of Oregon is, that was only a part. As wonderful as the friends I stayed with are, they are only a part. But maybe a bigger part. They gave me so much. So much. And I think, before in my life, I couldn't have accepted it. But now I could. And it was so wonderful.

It was so wonderful spending 10 hours with the childhood friend I hadn't seen in 49 years. We just picked up where we left off, because we were always in tune. We have been through a lot we still haven't shared fully--but the music still plays. And I love the tune.

I couldn't do some of the things I wanted to do because of my RA. And for about two minutes, I wept. Then I focused on the positive, and what I had and was experiencing and doing. And it was OK. Better than that. Blake made biscuits from scratch and omelets with wild mushrooms, and then we set out. It was great, whatever I was able to get to. Oregon has so much, even us impaired, hobbling folks can partake.

In 11 days, I can truthfully say I had NO negative experiences. No one person rude. No one person it wasn't pleasant to talk to. No view that wasn't beautiful, and worth going 2,000 miles to see.

See why it's so hard to write about?

But I will, for me if not for the readers. I need to see the words and in some ways, grow from it. It was the vacation of a lifetime.

And I hope there will be more.

Whistling His Way to the Top

Let's hear it--literally--for Terry Rappold, who won the National Whistling Championship a couple weekends ago in North Carolina. He won both the classical and modern music categories. The sound was incredible.

Liquid, full notes, with some vibrato, each note sliding into the next with a full, rich sound that would make a mockingbird weep with envy. Very similar to the quality of a Stradivarius violin. Yeh, like that. I caught just a few measures on the air, and was left craving more. That's a contest I would have liked to attend.

Lots of people whistle, though, I think, fewer do now then a decade or so back. Men and women used to sing and whistle as they went about their work.( Were they happier? Or just in better health aerobically?) When asked, Terry said he thinks great whistlers are just born, not made. When he was a kid growing up in New Orleans, he could already whistle well enough to perform for change off the tourists. Already had that full, rich sound. His uncle was an extraordinary whistler, too. Of course he has practiced, learned the music for his performances.
Funny. We accept that some people are just born with outstanding voices. But whistling? The sound this man got out was sweet, full, rich. It was not quite like any musical instrument you have ever heard, but similar.

Every so often, I see or hear something humans over this world have made or performances of such beauty that I would never have thought of them. And I think, "Yeah, being human can be pretty wonderful."

I learned to whistle when I was 5 or so. After seeing the movie, "The High and the Mighty", I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be a professional whistler. To that end, I spent a fair amount of time out in the barn whistling song after song to the horses. Not a bad thing for a kid to be doing. I figured out pretty soon there wasn't going to be much future in it. I also figured out I didn't have star quality.

Terry Rabbold does. Oh, man. I'd buy a CD of his whistling and keep it right next to my Indian flute music.

Funny thing. The reporter asked if he can do that two-finger whistling thing. He laughed, and said he never could do it, but his wife can. All he can do is make beautiful music, day after day, by pursing his lips and whistling.

What a wonderful gift.

Disclaimer: I'm unsure of the spelling on his last name, as I heard this, didn't read it. To hear this interview go to KRLD radio web page and access Mike Rogers' file, "Other Side of the News."