Been a little disconnected lately from my friend Jose out on the line. Not much going on... just waiting for the weather and a call to head back to the Tioga Lateral Project in North Dakota. In the meantime, the my union is sending me to a training school to train me how to dig safely and effeiciently around hot (flowing) lines. I can't help but remember m last conversation with my friend Jose. I distinctly remember him talking about his family. We pipeliners often spend a good deal away from our loved ones, and latley I am sure as I have been doing, connecting again with friends and family we love the most.
I find it amazing how people even connect at all. Think about it. Take two individual human beings. They contain different likes and tastes, unique qualities and preferences, different experiences and quirks...egos! It seizes me to with astonishing wonder, how the human race could even repopulate itself, much less form civilizations, or societies. I ask what is that bond that makes two people get along, or even give someone a first smile, not just in a male/female relationship but more so, just two people; say, for instance, a kid and an adult. Something more, something unseen, a force, a power of connectivity must be hard wired, or either is moving around us that must be in and among people. I call this the rainbow connection. This weekend I can say I truly experienced that connection.
My friend Brenda came to visit this weekend. Crazy! She drove all the way from Williston to see Middle River, a drinking community, with a farming- hunting- fishing problem Of course I was excited and nervous. What would I show her? Who would I want her to meet? She arrived safely and we began our little journey. We had plans generally to show her some local flavor, fabric stores, attend church services, see the quilters guild. I wanted her to meet some of the kids that were around, and of course my mom and grandma Our first stop on Saturday morning was Young's General store in Middle River, too much to explain so I ask the reader to just Google it. I wish I could describe the look on her face when she got into the fabric and sewing section. She is a quilter. And she found something she liked and wanted. Things were going good. Next stop, Thief River Falls, we just started driving , and she said, "Where does your Grandma live?"
Oh yes! Karlstad, She has been in the nursing facility for a few months. I can't believe we almost forgot about grandma. So we visited her. I told Brenda stories about grandma on the way down. But here are somethings I didn't tell her. She was just an ordinary home-made grandma. She loved to see us, she loved to send us away with something every time we saw her, whether it be a plate of cookies, or a National Geographic. She knitted and sewed. She warmed up beans on the wood stove while she cooked everything else in her oven. She baked bread and made terrific soup. She had us over often when we were growing up, and loved if we would drop off the little kids for a half hour while I picked up groceries. She once even had a cat that was invisible to the world especially little kids. She would boss us around a little, and we loved her for it, and was animate if our behavior wasn't up to her standards. She was a high class kind of lady who tried to make sure we were doing our best. And around her we always were our best. We talked for awhile on Saturday morning. It was good to visit. Ten minutes down the road I received a text from my cousin Kari. We had just missed her. She was also visiting grandma too. It was truly a great day for Grandma.
The rest of the day we made our destinations, and I truly loved the conversations we had. Supper, Supper mess, clean up. Bed time.
The next morning getting ready for church services we were interrupted. Grandma took a turn for the worse. We traveled to Grand Forks where she was admitted.Not much we could do, but we did all we could to make her comfortable. It was emotional. It was not fun. We all wanted answers and all we could do was wait. Brenda suggested to get away for a bit. And as for me I was in agreement. I didnt like what I saw in the hospital anyway. So we traveled to Buxton, ND to spend an hour with Jeremy and his famnily. (Brenda's son). I was greeted at the door by running toddlers and preschool age kids holding nothing other than wild bunnies. They all hugged their grandma and were so proud to show off their baby rabbits. Baby wild rabbits tamed and used to being held by energetic kids in the taming process of the human spirit. Jeremy's in laws were also there. I would really like to get to know Scott, a bow hunter from Duluth, MN. His wife was interesting too, and I felt really at home around them, I recognized the Finnish-Minnesota accent right away. What is that power that makes people even friendly? What is it that makes a person want to sit down with someone that you have never met and just talk?... about stuff. But we did. And then we went to back to Grand Forks to see Grandma, and my brother Tony. I traveled back to the hospital leaving Jeremy and his family and departed with a picture from Mattea, a wavy crayola rainbow that now hangs on my fridge.
Nothing changed, but we? We traveled home and now our conversations were more melancholy, light, undertones of sadness, and gratitude that we had spent a little time to be with her while we were our best and she could see that. Brenda stopped by the hospital with myself, my brother and mother on her way home to Williston. I walked her out to the car and a few minutes later Grandma Tootie passed over to the other side of the rainbow.
" Why are there so many songs about rainbows
and what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,
and rainbows have nothing to hide.
So we've been told and some choose to believe it.
I know they're wrong, wait and see.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection..."
( Jim Henson)
I imagine Jose is getting connected back at his home now too. Family bonds are more cemented like the glue in life. But its the connection between people, those transparent colorful moments that create memories. Like a rainbow, we can see it, we know its there, but we can't quite apprehend it. We can try to explain it, and more often than not we ask more questions because of it. What is it that connects us, family? I suppose to a degree. That isn't it though, because it goes even deeper than those kind of relationships. I believe it is more temporal like those rainbows, shared dreams, visions, common ideals, a shared smile about something or someone that both can agree are just commonly good, in that shared moment, that Presence. There is no denial that rainbows come and are that power from God. Like grandmas or the ideas of grandma, a kid giving a crayon picture to an adult, a friend waiting in a hospital room. Fortunately my grandma was an ideal one, a connection we feel with others that brings out our best. The connection that makes us hope that the people we meet, we will know for a lifetime. Today I am fortunate enough to experience the connection: "...The lovers, the dreamers and me."
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