Close to You

Why do brids suddenly appear Everytime you are near

"Valley of the Shadow" ~ Merzouga, Morocco © 2012 Skip HuntYesterday was the anniversary my sweet mother passed from this reality over a decade ago. The news came from a pay phone in Marrakech, Morocco but I'd had one last conversation with her. More of a conversation with a mind dreaming on morphine, but it was enough. 

She asked me where I was and I told her Morocco, but the morphine didn't allow her an understanding of where that was.

After she asked if there were cowboys in Morocco, I pretty much knew I was only communicating within a painless opium dreamtime. I figured I'd just try to help enhance the dream as best I could and answered, "Yes, there are cowboys in Morocco, but these cowboys ride magic carpets instead of horses. It's so beautiful watching them peacefully floating about the Sahara desert sands until all of a sudden they soar up into the clouds made of ambrosia ice-cream and scoop up a bowl before swooping and skimming lightly over golden sand dunes as big as buildings."

I didn't go home for the funeral and instead continued on my journey. The Sahara was actually within reach at Merzouga so onward in a dull daze I continued. The sands were every bit as golden and grand as I'd imagined and I actually bought myself a few of those magic carpets to bring home. 

It wasn't until I was on my way back up through Southern Spain that I viewed several white horses with long manes running through a field of long and soft emerald grass. You could see the patterns of the wind blowing in the grass as the light turned a sort of twilight purplish pink. A full moon began to rise and for the first time I saw it's face. It was my mother's face and she was smiling at me. For the first time in a couple weeks, I was able to smile right back. 

My mother always told me that when she was carrying me in her womb, she'd play her favorite song by the Carpenters "Close to You" and sing along as she rocked me in her chair. 

Yesterday, as I began to feel the old ache once again I went for a long walk listening to a podcast by Alec Baldwin interviewing Herb Albert in a futile attempt to distract my mind for awhile. I was only partially listening to the interview while remembering my mother as I walked along the trail. Herb Albert described a song that he loved but couldn't do justice to himself, so he gave it to a new group he'd recently signed, The Carpenters. As they played "Close to You" in the interview, I once again looked up toward the ambrosia ice-cream clouds and smiled back at my mother.

Skip Hunt
Austin, Texas