Newport Beach, CA – Sometimes on the road of life there are U-Turns, a chance to return on
the same path where we came from. For me
that place is at the end of 32nd Street in Newport Beach at the
Pacific Ocean. This U-Turn began more
than a week ago when I received the dreaded phone call that my mom suffered a
stroke. I left Basecamp near San
Francisco and went straight to Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach to visit my
mom. Luckily, since my brother was with
her at the time of the stroke, she came through with minimal injuries—mostly spaghetti
legs and left-side weakness. Still, we’ll
have to step up her care to round-the-clock vigilance for the next month. Now I am eye-ball deep in strategic planning
for her estate, retrofitting her home to accommodate a wheelchair and walker,
and interviewing full-time caregivers. One
Southern California evening when it had been a 100-degree day I gave in to the
endless task of caring for an aging parent and gifted myself with a beach trip
to watch the sunset. I went back to my
childhood place—32nd Street, and stood knee-deep in the warm ocean
water and melted into the watercolor painting that was my life. As the sun drifted down on the water, my
spirits began to soar and take flight like the seagulls on the horizon. Suddenly, there it was—the gift of grace, the
U-Turn, the sunset on the water enveloped in air so light and warm that if I
was a feather, I would have floated on the breeze to Catalina Island which on
this day I could see the outline with clarity.
I began to twirl and dance in the water, on the sand, with immense
gratitude at the gift of life without regard to how it presents itself—in sickness
and in health. There is only one time
and it is now. Carpe diem—seize the day.
