Wednesday Wish (30)

Photo by verbo10 via Flickr

Thick, grey, weighted air, heavy with unlove. Slow steps and bowed heads, bodies dressed in military green. I watched silently as I waited. I breathed deeply as I gazed. I felt as most didn’t dare.

            ‘Good morning Officer Thorpe,’ I said, his keys jingling with excitement as he opened the gate to let me in.

            ‘Morning, Miss Brynne. Friday already? Comes faster every week. Must be all the fun we been having here in prison.’ He chuckled, itching with the same spunk that kept his smile real. ‘The guys’l be happy to see you, always are. I’ll send ‘em right over.’

            ‘Thank you, Thorpe. Happy Morning,’ I called out as I started off across the gravel yard to the small cinder block room that waited for me, just the same, every Friday morning.

            Today I carried a small cd player in one hand and a bag filled with art supplies in the other—trusting the energy of the day to dictate our activities. Funny though, this day, unlike most, I could feel what they needed even before I walked in.

            ‘Mornin’ Miss Brynne,’ said a handful of men in unison, their eyes hungry for attention.

            ‘Morning Plumer, Alonso, Walter, Sam… How was your week? I sent ya’ll some birds. Did you see ‘em? Did you hear ‘em?’

            Plumer, who lost his voice, and his mind, in Vietnam looked at me with a soft, thankful smile. I returned it.

‘Plumer did. What about the rest of you?’

‘I heard one. Think it was yesterday. Sounded like Spring. Sounded happy, sounded free.’ That was Walter. He was in his fifties with hair like a bird’s nest. He loved birds. And after twenty-five years of doing time, his quirky was endearimg.

‘Yep. That was him! Nice, Walter. How’d I know you’d hear him?’

Now there were two smiles. Three if you counted mine.

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I asked them to close their eyes, to imagine as I spoke...

The bird is green. Green as the grass under a Carolina summer sky. You look up as it flies toward you. No one else is around. Not a one. You are all alone. So when he swoops low and lands at your feet you don’t look around for show and tell, you just stare. Open mouthed. As it motions for you to step aboard. Step aboard? But you’re just a tiny feller, you think out loud. So he grows. Big and hefty. Fluffy enough for a soft ride. And anywhere you want to go…

The razor wire looks like a stretched out slinky from far above. And camp looks like a silly dollhouse made for ants. You giggle. How’d such an insignificant place ever give you such grief, you wonder. You sigh and decide to think about more important things. Like the nearing airplane. Friendly faces point and wave from their little round windows. You feel like a celebrity and wave back. You reach down to pat the belly of your fluffy bird, your fondness for him growing by the second…

First you want to visit your mama, to give her a kiss and tell her you’re ok, that you’ve managed to keep your heart still lovin’, which is no small task considering the circumstances. After that, you leave it up to Bird. You know he came for a reason and you darn well know you better let him show you what that reason is. He does some loop-de-loops that make your belly do some flips and for a quick second you feel like a kid again. Wow. You let out a big laugh, the wind rubbin’ your cheeks like a dog’s in the back of a pick up truck. You close your eyes to feel it even better. Damn, that feels good…

Before you know it, you’re swooping low, closer and closer to…what’s that? An island? Yep. You haven’t ever seen one before but it sure looks tropical. And warm. The ocean lickin’ at its edges like bathwater in a big ole’ tub. And are those people? Hmm…hopefully they are nice. Yep. Seems they are. They all have smiles and are waving. You think you even see a few with happy tears…

As you step off Bird’s back, you’re encircled and held, hugged and embraced by all those in your past and your future who have, and who will, love you, care for you, want the best out of life for you. People that you thought had forgotten you. People that you thought you had forgotten. People you have yet to meet. And each one filled with love...for you. They step forward, one by one, to embrace you, to remind you that you aren’t alone, to fill you up with hope, with happy, with love…

I looked around at the closed eyes in the room--murderers, rapists, arsonists and simple thieves. Many, had tears streaming down their faces. Most, seemed deeply affected by the imagined love directed toward their hearts. And all, had transformed themselves into hope, into gentle, into love...their faces showed me so.

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My Wednesday Wish for You?

Listen this week, listen to your deepest needs and like a big fluffy bird, let your imagination honor those needs into freedom, let your Self fly out of your prisons and into hope, into gentle, into a world warm with love. 

If a small group of inmates can free themselves from their literal prison, then you can, too. After all, you know as well as I that a change in perspective can mean a change in life, a gift we can all give ourselves any time we choose.