Yesterday at my orthopedic doctor appointment, I looked around. Six feet of space. Masks on. Sanitizer available. Coffee bar out of order. Yep. All normal. Now please understand this. Since Covid restrictions have started, I’ve been definitely healthier in that I’m no longer getting all the normal bugs I usually get all year long. I like not being sick with normal stuff. But I think something else has happened. Something not so good. And it’s one that we can correct. You just have to be intentional. Connection. As I sat in my chair far away from everyone, I noticed a young man. He had a knee brace on. His hair was fixed in a dreadlock updo. He was college age and obviously uncomfortable. I cleared my throat and got his attention. “Football?” I asked, pointing at his knee. He nodded yes. And then we started talking. We talked football and college and scouts and pro ball and hopes and dreams…his. We also talked about disappointment and plan ...
I remember that day. It doesn’t feel like there’s been twenty years between now and then. The feelings are just a visceral today as they were on that day. I remember getting a phone call from our son. I was still in bed asleep and the call woke me up. “Mom,” he said, “Something horrible has happened. I think we are at war.” I remember I turned on the television in my room and watched in horror as the news reporter described the events unfolding. And even as he stood there, Tower Two began the very quick process of collapsing. I remember the next two planes. Fear set in as I wondered with my country…is there more? Will this day end without anyone else dying in this? I remember getting ready for a meeting I was speaking at that morning. The numbness of trying to understand what I had just seen. I remember that as I walked into the meeting hall, the tears, the silence, the blank stares of those around me. We quickly got through the meeting and hugged one another and...
The first time I remember tasting homemade corn tortillas I was about four. My Tia Delphina was the culinary expert in this and she would make the best ones. They were thick…thick enough to slice. They were both sweet and slightly nutty flavor. And a perfect texture. In case you didn’t know, Tia is Aunt in Spanish. She and my Tio Ladisloe lived next door to my grandparents in Del Rio, Texas. My grandfather, my Buello, was her younger brother. There was a connecting gate in the backyard to their properties and a little wooden bridge that we would walk on to get to her house. Beside that bridge was one of the largest pomegranate trees I’ve ever seen. My Tio, also called Larry, was a carpenter. All around their home were little things he had made with his own hands in his shop. He built shelves for my Tia’s plants. He built her a room for her African Violets and their small breakfast table. Sunday mornings after church I would hurry over there to sit on his lap as he read...
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