Tess's moment...

just a little story i wrote,...with questions and hope, found in a moment...:-)

       "The kite caught the wind, pulling the string from it's spool as her hair covered her face, Tess tried to recover against the give and take of mother nature on this beautiful march morning. In the distance she could hear the children laughing...running toward her. How happy they seemed in that moment. Pink from the chill in the air, they came closer, running and giggling.
"I won!" said Travis, as he grabbed his mothers leg.
"You pushed me cheater!" was Tiffany's expected response.
"And probably true", laughed Tess to herself.
 Travis, being the youngest wasn't past doing whatever it took to win. Tess smiled warmly taking it all in as the children quickly scurried giggling to their next adventure. She admired the simplicity of their joy, just running in a grass field. The moment was what mattered. It was childlike, but suddenly seemed to her much more real than what we called "grown up“, leaving too often that wonder behind. Turning her attention again to the kite admiring its simple, graceful dance, her thoughts danced in her mind as well.  She noticed the tightness of the string. If it were to break she knew what would happen. The kite, soaring and flying high, would start to tumble aimlessly and awkwardly in the wind, at it's mercy until the ground would finally capture it's end.
"That string.." she thought "..is like the wonder and imagination we have. It helps make our life soar. But sadly,  and too often, time  and minds occupied with "grown up" things pull too hard on that string, and it breaks, or worse, just cuts it."
     She sighed, thinking how her life seemed to finally be catching the wind again. The trials she had been through, and most recently the sudden loss of her mother reminded her that there are things even "grown up” can't control. Those times can teach us, if we let them. It was kind of ironic, in a pleasantly curious way, that her own children would help her see that and tie that string back in her life. They loved their grandma. Tess knew this and thought back to when she told them that grandma had died. There were tears of course. Tiffany sat quietly, her thoughts her own.
Travis simply asked "Will we see her again?"
Tess, being strong for the children hiding her own pain, just smiled and said "Of course, and we will always have her with us in our hearts".
With that Travis, his eyes lighting up as though suddenly remembering, said  "Oh yeah, grandma told us!" With a hop from the chair scampered off. For a moment Tess was kind of taken back. Watching him disappear carefree around the corner to play, her mind wondered. Though she was the grown up reassuring him, why did it seem that he believed it more than her?  As she sat she was saddened a little more, not just at the loss of her mother, but at the realization that she seemed to have lost something else. That childlike faith that makes peace seem easy.  Her mother always seemed to have that in spite of her own hardships. Tess remembered well while  growing up many times her mother would say.
“Whether things are going good or bad the sun rises just the same, so we might as well smile back at it so it will recognize us in the morning.”  Then she’d give a little wink and a smile as she went back to whatever she was doing, and that usually while she sang a song.  Tess felt a warmness thinking about that.  The faith her mother had is what made her joy flow, and it would seem to spill over and pour on everything, including her own imagination.
 When she would have the grandchildren over, the box they would play in was indeed a castle to her just as much as it was to them. And she smiled a lot. Something Tess knew she would want her to do.
She thought too of Tiffany that same day telling her how, when at their grandmothers, they found a little dead songbird while they were playing outside. They cradled it’s still body in their hands and took it under a maple tree and buried it. As they stood there quietly for a moment, grandma, with her hands on their shoulders holding them close, smiled. She spoke up and told them to just listen.  In a rare moment both the children stood quiet and still. They excitedly knew if grandma said “listen” there was something worth hearing. Then they heard it. She pointed out that the other birds were still singing.  Listening to them sing, she then told them that one day she too would leave, but not really be gone, and that she wanted them to keep singing too.  She would hear them.
     The kite suddenly dipped and tugged jostling her thoughts back to the present. Pulling on the string the kite resumed it's dance and she noticed Tiffany now standing beside her laughing, in awe of the kites performance, and her mommy actually playing. Tess laughed. Then another tug. This one on her pants leg. Turning she saw Travis looking up, dirty little face and a grin, with something in his tiny hand.
"Look mom, a flower!"
 It was a daffodil. Looking past them Tess saw the field and the daffodils blooming by the pond where they were playing, and the sunlight, suddenly so brilliant, glistening on the water.  She heard birds singing in the breeze, their notes like melodious candy to the ears.
"This was grandma's favorite!”, Travis said happily.
 "Yes! I know". Then, the kite string in one hand, with the other she grabbed her little angel and hugged him tight, tears cascading over her cheeks raised by a big smile. As Travis squirmed, like little boy angels sometimes do, Tess winked at Tiffany who joined the hug. Her soul warmed and taking a deep peaceful breath, this moment she knew, definitely mattered.
      Then, with a sudden gust of wind and a few turns of the spool of string, the kite danced and flew higher.  In this breeze that was Tess' moment, heart like a kite, her spirit danced and flew higher too."……

 

Reviews

[Through the Gateway]

This is a lovely and inspirational tale, Hoyt. A simple reminder that the faith of children is something we should maintain...and they occasionally teach us to mend our own kite-strings and go back to soaring.

Well written and very poignant.

[nostal]

A pleasure to read.
I think Lynne's review is spot-on.
Great write.

[cest la vie]

Oh my, what a heartwarming and inspirational write. Seems life little incidents have the most powerful way of clearing up those "grown up" cobwebs. Simply a splendid and lovely write..
Lynne