The Gift - An Inspired Hub That Wasn't A Hub
On August 7, 2008, I had a two hour conversation with my mother over the phone. It was wonderful and silly. The kind of conversation you would wish for if you had known ahead of time it would be the last time you would talk to this person. Upon hanging up, I had this tremendous compulsion to write it down verbatim. Mistakenly, however, I believed the natural progression after writing it was to publish it as a hub.
On August 8, 2008, I published...very briefly...a hub entitled "A Conversation With My Mother." It was read by thirteen people and received one comment by desert blondie. Shortly after reading the comment, I unpublished it...not because of her comment, but because...well, because something about publishing it just didn't feel right. I was a bit heartbroken though. I knew this was something special...I just didn't understand why.
On August 11, 2008 my mother passed away suddenly and unexpectedly.
Last week, when my four siblings were gathered at my sister's house...I remembered the unpublished hub. If life were a cartoon, somebody would have drawn a brightly lit light bulb over my head. The reason for the compulsion became crystal clear. Without hesitation, I gathered my brother and sisters around the laptop and shared the final conversation with our mother.
It was a gift.
For a brief moment, the unbearable grief of five people was suspended as we shared her words, her thoughts...laughing at things that could only have come from our mother. It was magic. When I was done reading it out loud, my oldest sister hugged me and said, "thank you."
I am not a truly religious person...but I do believe there is a beautiful magical quality to life. It isn't important to understand it; trying to rationalize it will only have you questioning your own sanity (and maybe a few others might question it too). I was raised never to question the source of a gift but to graciously accept it and be properly thankful. This one came without a tag, so I'm not even sure who to thank. But whoever you are...I think you know how I feel.
