Wednesday, 4 March 2015

TIME AND TIDE; AND BIRTHDAYS AND WONDERMENT






And so it goes…

Time and tide wait for no man” ~~~ Chaucer (but probably much before that)

Interestingly, when talking about tide, it is not the actual tide from the ocean, but as I understand it, the seasons of the year.  A shame really, I would have also liked to quote King Canute, the great Dane who commanded the oceanic tide to recede.  In fact I think I will; it went something like this…

Go back.  Go backel.  Go blobble.  Go globblee-ooble-blebble

I’ve been itching to write.  But so busy!  How come, at almost 57, I am busier than when I was a younger man?  I simply don’t get it.  But onwards…
Today’s a special day.  Today my eldest daughter, and middle child, has reached a milestone; twenty-one.  Twenty-one today!  Her birthday day started when she left our home to drive on highway 402 to Alvinston to go to work.  It was only last week that the highway was closed because of the snow (again); bloody winter has been a right royal pain this ‘tide’.  It’s about a forty minute drive and Zoe made it safe and sound.  Tonight Zoe will be accompanying me to a Neil Diamond concert; she’s not too keen on it but agreed to go.  Not sure what the big deal is here; I enjoyed his music when I was twenty-one.  In fact I grew up with his music.  The times have changed, I guess; but not the tides.
Last evening, her mother (that’s my lovely bride, Jane) and I were going through the “photo box” to grab some photos that I could put together with a medley and plonk it on Facebook; done.  Whilst searching, I got a brief look at my life.  Wow!  I mean WOW!  Have I really managed to come along that far?  How marvellous it was to see where that young fella that only lived for himself and his beer, beloved football (soccer), beer, music, beer, etc. has come.  A long way indeed.
Although my blog is about me, this day is really about Zoe.  I know she doesn’t want to go to the Neil Diamond concert tonight because it really isn’t her ‘thing’.  But I am grateful that she is and that she will get to see, first-hand, an artist that truly moves and inspires me with his music and words; some of his lyrics are quite profound; just listen intently to ‘I am, I said’ or ‘Stones’ or ‘Beautiful Noise’.   I have been playing his music on my stereo (yup; still got one), iTunes and guitar for ever.
So happy twenty-first birthday to my middle child and eldest daughter, Zoe Jane Freeman.  You have grown in to a wonderful young lady.  You are now a college graduate and working girl.  Who knows what awaits you in your future.  And you have to look to your future; that’s where you’re going to spend the rest of your life.  Enjoy your next trip around the sun, Zoe!
There was a time when I wasn’t so sure that my future would follow the path trod by so many others; find a partner, fall in love, get married, raise a family.  But I have done so and am proud and content with my lot.  I am still married to my lovely bride after twenty-eight years, all three of my kids are now adults; the eldest one, and only son, is in the Royal Canadian Air Force, one is a working girl with the school board and the youngest is finding her way, progressing through university.  I wonder what goes on in their heads!  I wonder if their thoughts and musings get as deep as their dear old dad.
I wonder…
 

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