The Long and Winding Road (The Beatles)

Very long story, condensed.  I first met Reba and her husband Vic at the 1999 Folk Alliance in Albuquerque, and we crossed paths again at the Kerrville Folk Festival a few months later (May).  They started coming down to attend the South Florida Folk Festival, first for a week at a time, then two weeks, then a month, which segued to many months (December through April:  snowbird status!).  

Vic passed in 2009, and Reba continued her visits.  We got together regularly, just the two or us or with friends... for concerts, dinners, socially.  Reba was my road trip buddy, always up for crossing county lines!  In fact, it was our last outing (to St. Augustine, to see Dar... 😍) before the pandemic shut everything down in mid-March 2020.

I would ask her to text me her grocery list once a week, I'd have everything Instacarted to my house, and then drive it up to her apartment (20 minutes north of me), where she'd put the perishables in the freezer and fridge, and then we'd sit on her back patio, masked and six feet apart, for a lovely chat.  Reba stuck it out until late-June and then decided to move back to her home in Maryland, and then a few months later to her daughter Judy's in California.

Whenever I was on my way to pick her up for an event (she didn't drive at night), it was my tradition to text "crossing Cleary" (Boulevard), which meant I was close to her apartment, and she'd come out to meet me.  We joked that I should write a song/poem with that title and, last week when I remembered it was her birthday (84th, I think), I decided I had procrastinated long enough.  I love you, RH!

SONG:  The Long and Winding Road by The Beatles

BOOK:  Ira Says Goodbye by Bernard Waber

POEM:  Crossin’ Cleary (a parody to the tune of Makin' Whoopee) by Susan Moss, dedicated to RebaH, with boundless (and boundary-less) love... 💞

Another winter, SoFla exodus

Another snowbird, Reba comes back to us

Another season, another reason

for Crossin’ Cleary

A few festivals, a lot of concerts

Many dinners, sometimes include desserts

It's really thrillin’ that I’m so willin' 

to cross Cleary

Picture a little apartment

Down where the hibiscus cling

Picture the same sweet apartment

Think what a year can bring

We dealt with COVID and social distance

She's so appreciative, and she missed us

Thank god for Instacart, folks, that's what she gets, folks

when we cross Cleary

Another year, or maybe less

What's this I hear? She’s leaving us

She took the train back, she asked us to help pack

oh, crossin’ Cleary

She’s settled near San Fran, we shipped her clothes and

We text and e-mail, we Zoom once in a while

We miss her dearly, those visits sincerely,

no more crossin’ Cleary

Sometimes I drive that way to Parlour Vegan or Tarjhay

My eyes get misty, I still have her key

It makes me feel love, to remember the years of 

crossin’ Cleary

QUOTE:  "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." ~ Lao Tzu

Cup of Kindness (Emmylou Harris)

Yesterday afternoon, when I came out of work, I noticed that two of my tires seemed less full than usual, and my car had been feeling shaky the last few days - I decided to stop at the gas station on the way home to add air. I put air into the back one (not too much, I still believe) and moved to the front to do the same - about that time, the first one blew (bam - d*mmit!).

I sighed... rather loudly, and proceeded to call AAA, of which (because my husband has traveled most of our marriage) I've been a member forever - they told me someone would be out in 30 minutes so, fortunately, since I was at the shoppette/gas station, I went inside to buy a Diet Dr. Pepper (surely a guilty pleasure, although I avoided the Sun Chips that normally go so well with it... :-)

Not 10 minutes later, I received a call from Jim, who identified himself as the tow truck driver, and asked how soon I'd like him there - I unfazedly replied, "well, as soon as possible would be nice, because it's really hot, but get here when you can". He laughed and said he was actually at the light a block away - I laughed back and told him I hadn't expected a trick question!

As soon as I hung up, Katie with AAA dispatch called to tell me someone was on the way - I laughed again and said, "I'm impressed - your driver is 30 seconds away"... :-)

Jim arrived and made fast work of the repair, taking off the old tire and putting on the temporary "donut" - all the while, we yakked, pleasantly, about the Comedy Channel and unexpected expenses and having a good attitude. What could have been a nightmare, with me waiting outside in the 5:30 p.m. sun for an hour evolved into a delightful exchange of human contact, each of us calling the other by first name, each respectful, each connected/connecting - I only had $7 in my wallet, but gave it to him appreciatively, as he was to receive (even though tips are not required).

I still have to get my car into Tire Kingdom to buy, and install, another tire... which, given my busy schedule, may take me another few days - however, yesterday's good experience will stay with me a very long time. Kindness matters - in fact, I'd venture to say, given the ripple effect, it's the most important attribute a human being can possess...

SONG: Cup of Kindness by Emmylou Harris

BOOK: Random Acts of Kindness by Daphne Rose Kingma (Foreword), Dawna Markova (Introduction)

POEM: Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

QUOTE: "Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love." ~ Lao-Tzu