Proof

Hard Head, the cardinal my husband has affectionately named after a close friend, began the song of his people.  I raised up to look at the clock on the far side of the bed....5:39A.M.   I could have looked at the clock on my side.  The one I purchased a few weeks back.  It was just what I was looking for....small, battery operated and no lit background until the button on top is pushed.  When the button is pushed, the light only stays on for a few seconds.  This was to be my solution, for having to raise myself up to peer over my sleeping like a rock husband, to see the time.  When the background light is activated on the small, battery operated clock, it looks like the headlight on a Norfolk & Western barreling down the track just south of Bird City in the beautiful Land of Pike.  

Lowering back to my pillow, I wondered if the cardinal was up for the day.  He decided to give all his feathered neighbors a few more minutes and did not resume until closer to 6.  

Most of the female population, over the age of 40, can relate to sleepless nights.  My aunt used to get up and knit, needlepoint or crochet when she would awake at the magical hour of anything past midnight.  Those things cross my mind, other than none of the above activities interest me and then my thought process goes something like....if you get up, the dog will get up....then you will have to get dressed to take the dog out.....when you bring the dog back in, he will run like a mad hatter and jump back in the bed, waking the still sleeping like a rock better half.....so, I stay in bed.

 I think about how quickly life has unfolded in front of me, like a long highway, leading up and over a distant hill.  I think about all the side roads I took off the beaten path and wonder if I truly learned anything from those experiences.  Sometimes I wonder 'what if', but I have learned there is no going back, only forward.

Thoughts of family and friends, past and present, run through my grey matter.  Although there are times that young people suffer from the loss of someone their age, thankfully, in most cases, it is rare.  At the age I have reached now, it is nearly common place.  Our once famous Friday Night Supper Club has lost three of its members in the last two years.  Thoughts of them pass behind my eyelids and a smile comes to my face as I relive some of our fun and crazy memories.

I'm a firm believer in the thought that our human bodies are merely a mode of transportation while we live here on planet Earth.  They are amazing bundles of flesh, bone and lots of interesting organs that all sync to the beat of a muscular pump we call the heart.  Jesus called them temples and if we thought about that for awhile, most would treat theirs better.

Hard Head has begun his morning song again and the neighboring chorus has joined in.  It is time to rise and shine.  My thoughts tell me I really do not feel much different than I did when I was a teenager.  Many people say the same thing.  I view things differently than I did as a teen, but I still feel like myself.  The same self I have known ever since I arrived in this life.  This gives me proof.  Proof of the soul, the spark that makes the temple lights come on, the ignition switch.  It is even more evident when I walk into the bathroom and turn towards the mirror.  Sometimes I forget that I have let my hair go grey.  This often happens when I'm out and about, feeling frisky and walk up to my car and catch the reflection in the glass.  The temple is not the same, it is showing signs of wear and tear as it marches on towards the inevitable.  It is then I am most thankful for the proof, the spark.