Manatees
MotherBang used to have a condo in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where there wasn't a whole lot to do but walk along the beach and eat early bird specials at local joints. Of course we went to Disneyworld all the time ("Honey, don't you want to go to Epcot this time? Or Universal Studios?" "Um, okay! Let's go to Epcot this time." Then, after we got there, "Mom, let's go to the MAGIC KINGDOM!" Mom would snort and happily tromp around with me).
There was a river nearby where manatees were often seen, and I tried for a sighting several times with no luck. Mom always saw them, and loved them. During one particularly bad year, she sent me a postcard featuring a photo of a mama and baby manatee swimming underwater together, which I tacked on the wall over my computer and looked at when I needed a dose of mother-comfort. Those big, bumbling things looked so graceful in their element. I tried to remember that ministry was my element, and that my mother was swimming alongside me all the time, sheltering me with her big flipper.
One time we went to try to spot the manatees, and Mom just about rolled the car into the water. She would never admit this, of course, just as she would never admit that she's the world's worst, worst, worst ever driver, but when we drove up to the edge of the water and she made a three-point turn, she almost landed us in the drink. I was hysterical.
No manatees that day, and MotherBang and StepdaddyBang sold the condo a few years ago.
But I was cheered to see my big, lumpy friends featured in the NY Times today:
http://tinyurl.com/ectso
They refer to them as SEA COWS.
Of course this makes me exceedingly and irrationally happy.
P.S. MotherBang is safely home from England. She took off from Manchester airport the other day, and one day later, a flight was delayed from the same airport due to a bomb threat. I had an attack of vertigo last night and it may be that I'm just dizzy with relief.
There was a river nearby where manatees were often seen, and I tried for a sighting several times with no luck. Mom always saw them, and loved them. During one particularly bad year, she sent me a postcard featuring a photo of a mama and baby manatee swimming underwater together, which I tacked on the wall over my computer and looked at when I needed a dose of mother-comfort. Those big, bumbling things looked so graceful in their element. I tried to remember that ministry was my element, and that my mother was swimming alongside me all the time, sheltering me with her big flipper.
One time we went to try to spot the manatees, and Mom just about rolled the car into the water. She would never admit this, of course, just as she would never admit that she's the world's worst, worst, worst ever driver, but when we drove up to the edge of the water and she made a three-point turn, she almost landed us in the drink. I was hysterical.
No manatees that day, and MotherBang and StepdaddyBang sold the condo a few years ago.
But I was cheered to see my big, lumpy friends featured in the NY Times today:
http://tinyurl.com/ectso
They refer to them as SEA COWS.
Of course this makes me exceedingly and irrationally happy.
P.S. MotherBang is safely home from England. She took off from Manchester airport the other day, and one day later, a flight was delayed from the same airport due to a bomb threat. I had an attack of vertigo last night and it may be that I'm just dizzy with relief.
posted by PeaceBang at 9:18 AM
2 Comments:
Sea cows, eh? What do they make of Emerson?
Or maybe they prefer Lord Byron:
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes
By the deep sea, and music in its roar;
I love not man the less, but nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.
Oh my PeaceBang. You have hit me where I live, with your comment about Mother Manatees swimming alongside us in ministry with their flippers shielding us.
I lost my mom six months ago, and blogged a bit about it today (Magdalene's Musings). Your post inspires me. Blessings to all creatures with mothers.
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