Here is a lovely summer story that a friend shared with me and has agreed to share with you. She wrote it for her granddaughters.
This summer day, time moved slowly. We were in the middle of a heat wave, steamy. hot and humid
with no relief day or night. After
another restless hot night Gramma decided to go to the lake just as the sun’s
light was bringing in the next day….
With blanket, towel and tea flask I walked down the stairs
at the beach onto the already warm sand.
I settled near the water’s edge.
The sunlight had not yet cleared the tops of the big trees and so the
beach was still in shade…
The water was still, like glass. The surface was so flat and
quiet…not a ripple to be seen. Looking
out over the bay, a haze left over from the previous day, hung in the air, a
promise of more heat to come. Only a few
people were there so early, all of us looking for some early relief from the
heat.
At one end of the beach, a husky and its owner stood in the still water
while a mother wood duck quacked insistently – quack, quack, quack. She had
a family of four young ducks to protect and she was loud and persistent. She quacked, her alarm breaking the morning
hush-- Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack! Then the husky, cooled and wet, walked away
with his owner. The morning’s hush
returned and the duck family swam on….
In the quiet another woman and I slipped into the lake,
moving out beyond the buoys into deep water.
Swimming slowly, without making a sound or splash, matching the lake’s
morning message, I felt the cool water’s caress.
While I swam I noticed several feathers left from the previous day's
adventures… floating now on the surface of the water.
Apparently weightless, small, white, downy gull feathers were balanced on
the water’s surface. Each feather touching
the lake’s surface at a tiny point, while the rest of the plumage curved up
dry, in a graceful white smile.
The
water reflected each feather’s beauty in a perfect mirror image. I swam wide slow circles around several
feathers to see them from all directions without disturbing them… I wanted to
remember this beauty and lightness of being forever. I breathed in deeply, “Ahhh.”
Feeling cooler from my swim, I walked out of the lake to my
blanket. The sun was just spilling its rays over the tree tops as Gramma sat
and started to sip her tea. Sunlight
touched the water as a new day was beginning.
Then two young girls, not yet 10, slim, all arms and legs—one
taller, the other shorter, passed me on their way to the water. They were in their “own world” quietly
talking to each other, excited and holding ‘something’ in their cupped
hands. They spoke Cantonese.
They had long straight black hair and were wearing dresses.
The taller girl with a pony tail wore a short dress and the shorter girl who had loose black hair to her shoulders wore a green
velvet dress.
They walked directly into the water, touching it with their
toes, giggling and happy. When they were
knee deep in the cool lake they bent to place their treasures carefully on the
water. They each launched two tiny boats on the water and since there was not a breath of air they proceeded to make
little ripples with their hands to move the little ships along. They, like the feather earlier, were
perfectly mirrored in the still surface of the lake.
Of course, they started to get wet and the boats moved into
deeper water. Distressed about this the
younger girl ran back to her Mother and asked in English for her help to get
the boats. Her Mom came to the water’s
edge and after stepping into the water quickly said “Oh! Too cold!” and went
back to her blanket.
I paused, and then spoke to the girls, “I’m a Gramma,” I
said, “and I’m already wet --I could get your boats if you’d like?” They talked and the younger girl said “Yes
please.”
In I slipped, to retrieve the four boats. When I got to them I discovered lovely origami
boats – each one coloured differently, each one with a tiny folded piece of
paper inside!
I brought them back to the girls and immediately told them
how beautiful the little boats were. The
younger girl proudly replied, “We were up at 5 o’clock to make them
today!” I told her I noticed the little
pieces of paper inside, she took a moment and then thoughtfully replied, “Those are our
wishes…”
Standing in the lake, a Gramma and two young girls with wishes
for the day I asked “Do you want to keep the boats? Or would you like to have your
boats take your wishes out on the water today?”
They talked amongst themselves and the younger replied to
me, “To the lake… “ I handed the boats to them and once more they launched
their boats this time their hands made
waves which took the boats and their wishes out to the larger lake. We three stood together, a Gramma and two young
girls, witnessing.
I returned to my tea and blanket while the girls continued
to play in the water. The younger girl’s
mother was now sitting near me with her mother.
She explained, “We just flew in from China two days ago and the girls were
up very early making the paper boats. The younger girl is my daughter and we
came back to this place for a holiday. Once years ago we lived here, and were very happy. This year we brought an older cousin and my
mother for the holiday.”
Curious I asked the mother what her daughter’s name was …. she
replied her name is the same in Mandarin and English. It is Future.
Our pet name for her is Day by Day. "I tell my daughter," her mother said, “Day by day, you walk into the
future.
I had asked Future when we were in the water if she might
share with me their “wishes” or were they a secret? She had taken a long moment to answer and
then whispered, “It’s a secret”. “All
fine”, I said, “I understand.”
It was time for me to go. The sun was higher and my own
daughter was waiting for me, having returned from an early morning run. I said goodbye…
…remembering
: The water knows the wishes from Future ---
day by day we will move into them….
… pondering : what would your wishes be if you were a child
dreaming…
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