Sunday, February 5, 2017

a river in the ocean



Please note that this and the post that will follow concludes riding the waves, a tale about being home in the world  by freda karpf  -  I hope you enjoy each bit and feel free to start at the top and read through to the end. riding is currently available on Amazon Kindle.  Thanks for reading and doing good.


     Nostos is the Greek word for homecoming, the idea of returning home from a long journey. Nostos can also mean ‘Welcome Home.’  There are many ways to return home, to find your center, to go to the place where you belong. Sometimes you just have to turn around and walk the path back. And sometimes even that is a long journey.
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     Tomorrow, if the time and tide is right, Mrs. Scattergood will go riding the waves. She would like to believe that Barry, in some other reality, is watching the snow come down while he's having a cigar on top of the mountain.  It’s his New Year’s Eve dream. He’s up in Vermont, he just had a good meal with his wife, and he’s standing in the doorway of the cabin doing his “Sweetheart” Humphrey Bogart routine.  All he says is “Sweethaaaaaaaart.” Then he bellows the cigar from his end while the flame is pulled against the cold into the tobacco.  And he listens to the snow coming down.
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     Barry would phone her now and then from the road broadcasting his philosophy between service calls.  He decided that a life review was critical to reach his goals. He began to do them every six months. But after his first life review he thought it prudent to do them more frequently so he switched to every three months.
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     Mrs. Scattergood’s life review came unexpectedly when Barry died and Baubo showed up in her kitchen.  Today was an odd day in her life.  It was full of wonderment, evolutions of grief and the short inhalation that comes from resolve.  She took a step toward home and a step back into the world.  She’s never going to stop being who she is in the world but she was different than before.

from  a river in the ocean (7), the end of riding the waves  by freda karpf

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