Being Supportive!

I keep finding out that with retirement comes time to think things over. I spend a lot more time on the political manoeuvering around the world, but that time is mostly wasted energy. What has become a much more thankful past time is paying attention to the people close to me: My son Jaap (the phenomenal pilot), grandson Zeppelin (the incredible musician) and a basically fatherless (formerly neighborhood) boy Bobby, now 36 and living in Florida. Then I have some great family members further “removed” - My brother Burchard and my first cousin - adopted “brother” Roland. Oh well, if I start listing all the people to whom I feel close, the list becomes quite long. Being single makes me focus more on these folks, and now I’d like to tell you this:

While in Amsterdam, I noted some voice mails on my cell phone I couldn’t access due to the absence of a needed code. When I was back in my house, I listened to all these communications:

Bobby - he now prefers to be called “Robert”, left a message in his darkest of voices:

“Hey, I was fired and I am not sure why. I suspect though that the owner needed to give the job to a friend of a friend. Now that I am fired I cannot get Workers Comp. Got another (tire company-) job, but it is much further away. I am broke. Can’t afford to live here. Fortunately, Sandra (his former girl friend) has decided to come back. My kids are understanding, but moving again is hard for them. Their mother is of no help! Just want to talk to you.”

Misery!

I called back and got the whole story in more detail. “So, how can I help?”

“I am calling to get some advice.”

“Do you need some money to make the move possible?”

“No, you have done enough in the past!”

Well - we agreed that a little monetary help would be wonderful to bridge the gap and get the whole family into a smaller, new apartment. I promised to mail the check that afternoon.

I hung up, wrote out a check and mailed it with an encouraging, uplifting note direction Florida. The fun thing of it all is, that due to some “special” economics I could do this.

See, I flew back and forth to The Netherlands economy class with sore knees in the “Exit”-row, thereby saving bucks that I could now nicely spend on a much more needed cause: Robert!

Forgive me, but that felt great.

He called me this morning with a fathers’ day greeting I am saving for a while on my voice mail register. Robert made me aware that frugal living can have great side benefits and it all fell on Fathers Day week-end. The timing was perfect.

Jacob's Garden

This Sunday morning, I walked, armed with leaf rake, clippers and white, transparent plastic bag into the back of my garden, and the older I get, this luscious place is getting bigger every time I have intentions of working on it. I walked all the way to the back and started trimming the brick paths, “miles” of them. After finishing a portion, I gathered the leaves. I was industrious, and didn’t spend time on having profound thoughts.

The first hour was slowly coming to a close and the perspiration started to accumulate at the familiar places. My knees started to hurt and my lower back signaled that “enough is enough!” I took the hint, closed the half filled plastic bag, gathered my tools and headed on “home”!

While I walked back, I looked around and realized for the umpteenth time that this place is very close to Heaven - in more ways than one. Ground ivy as the predominant ground cover, bushes ( I can’t tell you their names), wild, subtly smelling red roses, hundreds of young Hickory Tree shoots and others, plenty of weeds (I trim these, if they start to take over). Weaving through this place, I call Jacob’s Garden are brick and pine needle covered paths. The bricks, 2300 of them, were recovered from a torn down downtown office building many years ago. In the very back is the jewel of this paradise: a green shed with a relatively new roof, but otherwise undisturbed for the passed 20 years. It leans slightly to the left. The doors are kind of crooked, but they open easily and inside are tools mostly belonging to my friend Walter and card board boxes with books my son Jaap left with me many months ago. The ground has never been covered and still has the familiar reddish color.

This place doesn’t require power mowers - there is no lawn to work on. Over the almost 20 years I have enjoyed this space, it has never been watered with a hose or bucket, and the one giant red oak tree right at my back window of my house, has been fertilized only once. So, this can be labeled: a low maintenance and little energy consuming garden.

A voice somewhere tells me:

“Enjoy me the way I am. Pay attention. Work with me, but don’t try to change me ... much! Look at me. From time to time, come see me! Although you look and see, the world unseen within me is huge. So, don’t pretend that you understand me!”

Kind of who I am!