LONG TIME COMING

21 Mar 2016 12 Comments

by Sheila Clapkin in Uncategorized

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If you could speak to anyone on the planet living or dead who would it be? This is a question I would like you to stop reading and ponder for a little while. Now you have firmly picked a person, see the person’s face, now take some time to gather what you would like to ask.

Thank you for your time. I would recall my Grandma Hannah, my mother’s mother. I would apologize.

I would apologize for not being the granddaughter she deserved. I would apologize for not knowing what I had to offer and for not knowing what she would have enjoyed. Oh, hindsight is such a glorious and perfectly edited teacher.

I would have sat longer at the dinner table with you when you made your delicious lamb chop to share with me. Where did I have to go in such a hurry? After all, I had the most important person in the world at that moment right across the table. My innocence, I apologize. I would have told you things, many things you would have thought about long after I was gone. My abrupt leaving left you only with the dishes and the clean up. Hardly the memory I would want you to have.

I would have come to visit you so many times more than I did. I would have realized that you didn’t even know me or I you. How could you have known much? I gave you so little time and conversation. I know some things about you because your six children told many stories.

Now, again, I have brought you here, not only to apologize, but because I want to tell you of the family you have created. I would tell you such nice things about them and their contributions to their world. How handsome your boys, how beautiful their wives: how lovely are your girls and how handsome their husbands. How beautiful and accomplished are every one of your grandchildren and your great grandchildren are as equal to any task as were their ancestors. I know the best is yet to come and I hope there are more times to talk.

 

 

Be Aware

08 Mar 2016 9 Comments

by Sheila Clapkin in inspirations, Reflections, Trials and Tribulations

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My eyes have been opened and I am in awe of the process. The first eye opening process came from being very nearsighted.

I saw everything in magnifying glass dimensions. Everything was up close and personal. I was caught looking at another student’s paper during a test in the beginning of 4th grade. The teacher went ballistic on me. After her horrid diatribe, I had the wherewithal to tell her I could not see the board and I did not copy answers. I told her that I had my own answers, but I could not see the board, so I did have to copy the questions. This ended up after much hullabaloo with me seeing an optometrist and getting fitted for my first pair of GLASSES.  I thrived for the next segment of my life, but the nearsighted view of the world, put me into a self-centered arena. Being self-centered is where most people reside. You know what you see, you add what you hear, and you do what you do. For me, the self-centered existence has lingered for the longest time and been the most profound.

The next segment for me was the cocoon, the chrysalis, and the metamorphosis, which is “a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one, by natural or supernatural means.” This change was paramount to me. Becoming a nice, fairly well rounded, accomplished person, who has never stopped being nearsighted, is cherished.

Regarding the nearsightedness in human beings, I want you to know that what I love about myself is that I have been nearsighted all of my life and I love that view. Now that cataracts are just beginning to grow, some one of these days I will have to have cataract surgery. Then, you as well as I have to make a decision. Do you put in a nearsighted lens or a 20/20 lens, or wait until you are nearly blind with indecision. I want to be nearsighted. I can see the world in old dimensions. I can pick up the teeniest little bit of information and I can see the world, as a few others have been able to see it. How many of you can say you have seen the world under a microscope? You have no idea what you can see being nearsighted. It is like going around in your life here and there using a magnifying glass. That will/would be hard to give up wouldn’t you say?

Putting in a 20/20 vision lenses in my eyes to be used day and night, day in and day out, would cast my view in completely different vistas. I would not be able to go into my heretofore known world without help. So, I would be beholden to the nearness or handiness of a magnifying tool that my eyes have always done for me.

My friend C. says to get the 20/20 vision lens because when you are a really, really old lady, in a retirement or care facility, they will always be losing your glasses, so 20/20 will be helpful. Not having to look for your glasses everyday more than once or twice would be fantastic.

Heretofore, I have always been a nearsighted lifetime adventurer, a self centered one, and a morphed one will be a future decision, so I am going to, and hope you do, too, make the best of things as they are right NOW!