October Surprise

As I look back over the course of Time, considering the Octobers I've left BEHINE, I am attracted by the reality of two TIMELINES. There's the October in 1973 when my grandma passed. She was the love of my life and I was DOUBTLESS the love of hers and in retrospect, her passing signaled the end of something PRICELESS. It would be a crime if I even once offered a PROTEST for being one unloved. We were the apple of each other's EYES, and hers had taken to the SKIES. For a LONG time, she was the one person through whose eyes I could do no WRONG, and to ponder such a relationship brings TEARS over such a lovely and precious one who gave me 24 YEARS of unending love and devotion. There is also that second October of 1978 when I took to the roads heading WEST. If grandma's October was an ENDING, that '78 October would be my new BEGINNING. Grandma's October was one of mourning; the '78 October was one of excitement and anticipation. On the one hand, I was facing the unknown with a sense of abandonment; on the other hand, there was intrigue, suspense, adventure, but also there was a heart filled with high hopes of SUCCESS. It took me farther from my beginnings than I had ever been before, and it was DESTINED to keep me away longer from EVERYTHING to which I was familiar, and introduced me to an entirely new world, a massive cultural change, and a new normal for me. A new normal which I was, not to conform, but certainly adapt to. Never before have I thought of October in these terms, but I must say that it is a beautiful recall upon which to rest my mind. O, the wonders of yesterday and the beauties to be formed in October. Only God can craft a pattern with such symmetry and orchestrate a life from beginning, in between, and the final, often allowing the twain to MEET. In a way, the very thought of such is both a TREAT and an October Surprise. How SWEET. 092820PSCtest, October, Regina McIntosh, Enclosed Rhyme