The Element of Surprise

(On the occasion of my 70th Birthday Weekend)

I like to think I'm an unsuspecting, non-conspiratorial kind of guy,..floated along in life, had my successes, certainly had my failures, tried to be helpful where I could,.. you get the picture.  But through all of this tries to generally lay low and fade to the background....  But that just my lowly opinion,.. am I laying it on too think....  Pat, says I should just tell the truth, ..if I'm capable of that.  Truth is, ..as humble as I think I am, there's never a time when I'm not talking and I'm certainly very opinionated.....  To which I say, that in itself is a matter of opinion.

Any, Pat and I headed for Miami the past weekend, ... a little R an R,  .. to celebrate my 70th birthday.  She said I need ed to get out the winter doldrums,, certainly the truth, and away for the Northeastern gray skies of February.  Neil Jr. had agreed and off we went to spend some quality time with my eldest and his wife.  I knew there'd e some outside activity, it is Miami after all, and at some point we'd have dinner. And after 4 days, back to Philly. All of that proved to be true,... its just what happened between the lines got me off balance..... and, at the same time got me on balance,,, for the next 70 or so years. 

On Friday, I'm up, heading downstairs,  and playfully exclaim,.." Good Morning Family"...  no response,,.. didn't think too much of this, but then Neil's Mother-in-Law, Sheila Monroe comes into view as she rounds the bend of the 1st floor balcony.   Hugging her I say."Sheila,,...  I thought you had gone back to Philadelphia,, what a pleasant surprise" ,  and it indeed was. Note: she had been done to run the Miami 5K,.. as had Marcella's sister Rhonda Johnson, who just at that time materialized out the downstairs bedroom,....  " Rhonda,  I had no idea you were still in town,,.... What a pleat surprise,.., and again,.. it was indeed.  I was oblivious to the plot that was brewing,.. or, in fact had already been cooked and was about to be served.

An hour passes,.. the apartment door opens,  Pat: "Look who I ran into downstairs".   My youngest brother Isaac and his family was emerging from the door into the apartment.  For a split second, I actually thought she had just run into them on the streets of Miami.   Isaac, his grandchildren, Owen and Sophia and my niece, their mother, Bianca.  We hug and then, it occurred to me that they had planned to be there, invited by my cunning wife, Pat.  And I'm relatively speech, but absolutely beyond thrilled to see them.  But, I know that I'm in the presence of greatness.  A Mastermind was indeed at work and behind a master plot. By contract I'm really slow to catch on.

Isaac and I go out to lunch,... had a nice lunch at a restaurant around the corner from Neil and Marcella's apartment.  Two hours pass,,,,,, another sighting,...   this time Derrick and Linda.  This is no coincidental happenstance, and I'm dumbfounded, as well as speechless..  This is too much,  we laugh, my mind soars again, I sit down from laughter and exhaustion.   Can't get the smile off my face or the giggles out of my mind. Then I'm let in for the plan afoot for that evening: Two nights at an Air B 'n B with Isaac , Derrick and Linda and of course the Master mind (Pat).   I'm jumpy, nervous and waiting for another coincidental appearance, at this point..  Whose, next Julia and Robynn?,,.. Bob?  Ritah?....No one shows up,, I look out the apartment door to make sure.  No one's there,.. the coast is clear,.. this is the end of it.  I can relax,.. and I do, although a part of my mind is still on Cloud Nine.

Had a great dinner that night at the apartment, then headed for the Air B'n B, a few blocks away, sttle in, have a conversation, before bed, and marvel at the surprises that have unfolded that day.  Its been a full and awesome day,.. and I've been completely blown away.  I'm not one for surprises,... never know how to respond and always feel a bit awkward, but not so today. I'm so glad they've arranged these surprises for me,.. and everyone was in on it, I came to discover later on.

The next day we meet up at Neil and Marcella's apartment and head over to the local popular hangout Mall in Miami. Put in our coffee and danish orders,  arrange tables and chairs, and are ahvimng a real good time.  Lind and I are talking, she glances off to the side, then I glance to the side,,.....Robynn, Julia, Mara and Andrew standing there grinning, at how oblivious I was to the fact they had been standing there for the last 2 minutes. I didn't have a clue that they were going to be there,  had been planning to be there for close to be months, ... The Master plot had been brought to completion.  I was completely floored, that my family had driven to Miami, taken planes, had discussed showing up in Miami on my 70th Birthday for months.

The Element of Surprise. Author Julia Cameron once said, "Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise."  This was a weekend of surprises for me, A weekend drenched in love, saturated with joy, and for me, manifest with lots and lots of gratitude.

Peggy

 
I didn't have any pictures of Peggy.,... that is until I found this one on the internet.  It's from her legacy obituary page. Typical Peggy!

I Haven't thought about her in years, ..although I'm very close to her  Brother, Bob. Bob was married to my cousin, Judy, and over the years Bob's Family became very much apart of ours. In fact our 2 families became one, with Bob's parents becoming quite close with our matriarch. Then there were Bob's siblings, Bill, Ed and Peggy.

Peggy lived in Los Angeles where she was an "Imagineer" for Disney.As it turns out Pat, my wife, also had become fast friends with Peggy. Well, Peggy is no longer with us. Neither are Ed, Bill, Judy, their parents, our matriarch,.. its a lonely planet without them. But Pat, Bob and I are in for the long haul,..  In fact Bob turns 70 this week,..we've known each other for some 40 years. Happy Birthday, Bob.

So, I was thinking of Peggy this morning, not sure why,  I'm sure it has something to do with the gorgeous cloudless day,  also strangely Starbucks is mixed up n there somewhere,.. yes, that Starbucks. Another piece, Riverside, CA, is there, Uncle Joe and yes, Peggy.

It was a cloudless day in Southern California. I had been visiting my Uncle Joe, at his home in Riverside, CA. The day I was scheduled to leave from LAX, Peggy had a Doctors appointment scheduled. You see, she had stage 4 Ovarian Cancer, was resisting receiving chemotherapy, and I thought I'd go to her
appointment with her. Heading up from Riverside to LA took about 1 hour. Uncle Joe had told me it wouldn't take any less than 2 hours. But traffic was as clear as the sky and it was smooth sailing up to LA. Arriving early, I thought I'd get caught up on some work for about and hour at "Starbucks". Bu there were no parking spaces on the busy thoroufare where the "Starbucks" was located about a mile away from Peggy's apartment.   So I thought I'd head to her place,.. can't hurt to be a bit early.

"Hey Peggy,  how are you", hugging her somewhat frail body.. "I had a rough night ,.. called my Doctor, he said I should get to the hospital" " Well let's go what can I do to help you?"  So we spent the next 10 minutes, sorting through some things, she had her bag packed already., the we hit the road to the hospital.. can't remember which on, now.

So I sat with Peggy in a hospital in LA, not expecting that that's where I'd be on a cloudless day in Southern California . I had to say good bye to her in a couple of hours, to head for LAX, not knowing it would be the last good-bye we'd  share.

But a few things stand out for me:  I-91 from Riverside was absolutely clear, as if to beckon me on  to Peggy's, clearing a path for my early and urgent arrival; The "Starbucks" blocked and refused my entrance, say if to say,.. "got to turn around and get to Peggy's"; the amount of time I spent with her that morning was short, but enough to usher on to the next phase of her journey to what proved to be one of her last hospital visits, enough time to get done what needed too get done.  No time to think, but enough time to showing caring and love, whatever the universe chose to channel through me to her.

How many times do we get to be conduits of caring and love in brief moments that the Universe totally orchestrates.  Leave yourself open for that.  As we touch each other, its all part of your story,.. and their's.

Pi Gardens: Endless Beauty

 

Welcome to 'Pi' Gardens! A concept I've been tossing about the past few years is the concept of endless beauty. With the inundation of seemingly endless tragedy, street violence, mass shootings, political turmoil and even, as my youngest put it 'the people who make us laugh are on strike ', there must be a push back... somewhere. So I took a look around this morning and decided that I'd just put it out there. 'Pi' Gardens is my wife's creation. Not only are P.I. (Pat Imms) her initials, but 'Pi' (3.14159......) is the most elegant expression of relationships in the world of mathematics (and anyone who knows my wife knows she is all about relationships). But in all of its elegance and beauty 'Pi' is also infinite: 'Endless Beauty '.

Take a look around you!. You're sure to find 'Endless Beauty', in your neck of the woods.