Tuesday, May 20, 2008.
My niece, Rebecca Hengstenberg, received her J.D. degree this past weekend. I drove to D.C. to attend her graduation commencement at Georgetown Law Center. Relieved that I had found a parking space right at the Law Center, I hurriedly got out of the car to catch up with my daughter and her Dad whom I had spotted entering the front gate. The sound of a car running near me caught my attention. I turned around to realize the hum was coming from my car. Holy Smokes! I tried to open the door. It was locked. I peered inside. There in the ignition were the keys. How had I been so completely unconscious! Why had I no memory of locking the car or leaving the keys in the ignition? Where did my mind go when it left me for an unexpected vacation? According to Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, I am not my mind so if it decides to go on vacation without me, apparently I'm still me which brings me to the age-old question of "who am I anyway." Tolle's answer is simply that I am the watcher of my mind and my thoughts. I am just pure consciousness. All the labels that I have used to describe myself are only labels. They are not who I am. Thus, I am not Judith, I am not my past, I am not this body I live in nor am I what I do or where I live. I simply am. I exist and when my body is no more, Tolle says the essence (consciousness) that I am will continue to exist in eternity. I guess I will just return to the collective consciousness out of which I came when I was born.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Mother's Day, 2008
On Mother's Day weekend this year (May 9-11), I flew up to visit my daughter Juanita and her husband Antonio. My flight had been delayed several hours so I sat in the Richmond airport doing Sudoku puzzles for entertainment. After boarding, it was another 45 minute delay on the runway before we were cleared to take off.
When I arrived at the LGA airport around 7:30 p.m., it was raining. Juanita and Tonio were caught in traffic but were soon there to meet me. Juanita had gone to extraordinary efforts to express her appreciation. As a surprise, she had purchased 3 tickets at $122 each to take her Mom to see the "Jersey Boys" playing on Broadway. I had called her Friday morning to say I didn't think I could make the morning flight. Juanita, thinking I would not be coming, sold 2 of the tickets that afternoon. I managed to get an afternoon flight for an extra $100 + the extra ticket price of $179. Tonio tried to sell the 3rd ticket on the street before the show began without any luck so I bought it from Juanita as a souvenir - I should frame it to remember this trip.
Once we arrived at home, there were pink and white roses waiting for me in the guest room, a Mother's Day card on which Juanita had written some sweet words from her heart, and a gift box inside of which a key chain with rinestones spelled out the letters M O M. I will make a necklace with them. I treated Juanita and Antonio to dinner Friday and Saturday nights at local diners so Juanita would not have to cook. Juanita's father joined us for Saturday night dinner. New Jersey diners have every imaginable food on their menus -- and serve breakfast, lunch and dinner all day. Some diners are open 24 hours.
Sunday Juanita cooked a Mother's Day feast of Asian rice, seasoned broccoli, an elegant fish entree with dill and hot cornbread. She made a special tea and served up some delicious Zinfindel wine and for dessert - oh, boy -- ice cream sundae with a cherry on top and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies! Yum.
We had just enough time to finish our dinner before it was time to leave for the airport at 3:30 p.m. My plane was to take off at 5 p.m. and Juanita assured me we'd make it on time - she is a master at navigating the streets of New Jersey and Manhattan and knows all the faster lanes. Once we rode over the George Washington Bridge, we were in New York. We crossed the Triborough Bridge (so named because it connects 3 boroughs) and made it to the airport by 4:4o p.m., in time for me to make it through security and get to the plane which was already boarding.
I always want more time with Juanita - it never seems to be enough and time runs out so fast but we had a good visit even though we were all tired from the previous work week. As the plane took off toward Richmond, I reviewed in my mind our visit together -- so grateful that there is no termination date on motherhood and so grateful for my precious daughter and her sweet husband. The flight home was turbulent because of a thunder storm as we flew over Virginia. One passenger across from me threw up twice as the plane dipped and bounced from side to side. Behind me sat the wife of my seat mate who had draped his arm over his seat so he could hold her hand. He kept asking her, "Are you okay?" When we neared Richmond and the plane began its descent, suddenly I felt the plane turning.
"We're going up! We're going up!" my seat mate yelled. The pilot came on the speaker and explained that it was too turbulent to land so he had to take us up again. We circled around Richmond until he received clearance to land on a different runway. Once I felt the wheels hit the runway, I joined the other passengers in a round of applause.
I called Juanita about 8:15 p.m. to let her know I had gotten home. "I just got home too," she said. She had been sitting in traffic all that time -- from 3:30 p.m. to 8:15 p.m.
"Mom, I told Tonio I could have driven you home by now myself!"
Every journey has its lessons. I won't plan to take a morning flight again unless Juanita urgently needs me in which case my adrenalin will kick in sufficient enough to get me out of the house. I've decided never to fly into LaGuardia even if it costs more money to fly into the Newark International Airport. Or maybe I will take the train. I had originally booked my flight into LaGuardia on US Air on my birthday (March 21st) to save money but changed the date to the Mother's Day weekend. By the time I had paid the extra money to change flights and flight times, I could have taken Continental into Newark.
I want to remember the pink and white roses, the comfortable bed Juanita had made for me, our mother-daughter time while Tonio was at the gym and barbershop on Saturday, the wonderful meal she made for me, and her sweet smile and good-bye kiss as she dropped me off at the departure gate. And I want especially to remember a sweet surprise - as I was just going through security, she called me on my cell phone which immediately went dead, but I heard her voice and turned around to see her standing there waving good-bye. She had parked and come inside to make sure Mommie made it to her plane.
When I arrived at the LGA airport around 7:30 p.m., it was raining. Juanita and Tonio were caught in traffic but were soon there to meet me. Juanita had gone to extraordinary efforts to express her appreciation. As a surprise, she had purchased 3 tickets at $122 each to take her Mom to see the "Jersey Boys" playing on Broadway. I had called her Friday morning to say I didn't think I could make the morning flight. Juanita, thinking I would not be coming, sold 2 of the tickets that afternoon. I managed to get an afternoon flight for an extra $100 + the extra ticket price of $179. Tonio tried to sell the 3rd ticket on the street before the show began without any luck so I bought it from Juanita as a souvenir - I should frame it to remember this trip.
Once we arrived at home, there were pink and white roses waiting for me in the guest room, a Mother's Day card on which Juanita had written some sweet words from her heart, and a gift box inside of which a key chain with rinestones spelled out the letters M O M. I will make a necklace with them. I treated Juanita and Antonio to dinner Friday and Saturday nights at local diners so Juanita would not have to cook. Juanita's father joined us for Saturday night dinner. New Jersey diners have every imaginable food on their menus -- and serve breakfast, lunch and dinner all day. Some diners are open 24 hours.
Sunday Juanita cooked a Mother's Day feast of Asian rice, seasoned broccoli, an elegant fish entree with dill and hot cornbread. She made a special tea and served up some delicious Zinfindel wine and for dessert - oh, boy -- ice cream sundae with a cherry on top and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies! Yum.
We had just enough time to finish our dinner before it was time to leave for the airport at 3:30 p.m. My plane was to take off at 5 p.m. and Juanita assured me we'd make it on time - she is a master at navigating the streets of New Jersey and Manhattan and knows all the faster lanes. Once we rode over the George Washington Bridge, we were in New York. We crossed the Triborough Bridge (so named because it connects 3 boroughs) and made it to the airport by 4:4o p.m., in time for me to make it through security and get to the plane which was already boarding.
I always want more time with Juanita - it never seems to be enough and time runs out so fast but we had a good visit even though we were all tired from the previous work week. As the plane took off toward Richmond, I reviewed in my mind our visit together -- so grateful that there is no termination date on motherhood and so grateful for my precious daughter and her sweet husband. The flight home was turbulent because of a thunder storm as we flew over Virginia. One passenger across from me threw up twice as the plane dipped and bounced from side to side. Behind me sat the wife of my seat mate who had draped his arm over his seat so he could hold her hand. He kept asking her, "Are you okay?" When we neared Richmond and the plane began its descent, suddenly I felt the plane turning.
"We're going up! We're going up!" my seat mate yelled. The pilot came on the speaker and explained that it was too turbulent to land so he had to take us up again. We circled around Richmond until he received clearance to land on a different runway. Once I felt the wheels hit the runway, I joined the other passengers in a round of applause.
I called Juanita about 8:15 p.m. to let her know I had gotten home. "I just got home too," she said. She had been sitting in traffic all that time -- from 3:30 p.m. to 8:15 p.m.
"Mom, I told Tonio I could have driven you home by now myself!"
Every journey has its lessons. I won't plan to take a morning flight again unless Juanita urgently needs me in which case my adrenalin will kick in sufficient enough to get me out of the house. I've decided never to fly into LaGuardia even if it costs more money to fly into the Newark International Airport. Or maybe I will take the train. I had originally booked my flight into LaGuardia on US Air on my birthday (March 21st) to save money but changed the date to the Mother's Day weekend. By the time I had paid the extra money to change flights and flight times, I could have taken Continental into Newark.
I want to remember the pink and white roses, the comfortable bed Juanita had made for me, our mother-daughter time while Tonio was at the gym and barbershop on Saturday, the wonderful meal she made for me, and her sweet smile and good-bye kiss as she dropped me off at the departure gate. And I want especially to remember a sweet surprise - as I was just going through security, she called me on my cell phone which immediately went dead, but I heard her voice and turned around to see her standing there waving good-bye. She had parked and come inside to make sure Mommie made it to her plane.
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