bird choirs 287/366

ten weeks from today is Christmas Eve

how did I get to that random subject?

this: 

On my way to practice today, at a stop sign, I noticed a flock of birds stretched out in all four directions on the phone lines. My mind immediately went back to the last century, a different lifetime ago, and I could hear Bill's voice telling the kids: "Look, the birds are all lined up for choir practice." I imagine he would have exaggerated and extended the story with adding "the director has them separated by Soprano, Alto, Baritone and Bass so they can more easily learn their part." He may have gone on to suggest which song they were singing or asked the kids which song they thought was being learned. He might have encouraged them to sing along...

And that, my friends was the beginning of a trip down a road that isn't bad, but I certainly was not planning on traveling it today. You might be familiar with it, and may be on it as well, though the path and accompanying scenery will look much different for you than it does me. 

Memory Lane.

Where good times and laughter and smiles 
and hard times and tears and heartbreak 
and things we looked forward to and things we dreaded and things we endured
and ordinary days and extraordinary days and the in between days 
all mingle to create the tapestry of our lives. 

I've been thinking about Bill a lot recently. The birds just escalated an awareness of what he would be mindful of, what he would be keeping track of and looking forward to and Christmas here at home, with the kids who can make it, would be one of those things. So figuring out how far away Christmas is was a natural thing to do this evening. Seventy sleeps. That's not so long to wait. Maybe there will be birds on a phone line while they're here and we can pass that memory on to the grandchildren.