Growing up in Texas, you take bluebonnets for granted. They were a yearly subliminal reminder that summer vacation was just around the corner. As a kid who never made it past the Tejas border (where else would you go? oklahoma?) I assumed they were everywhere, and they would always be there. The sight of an endless sea of blue on a small farm to market road is a wonder lost on the young. Why didn’t I stop more to admire them?
I thought I would miss out on them this year, the unfortunate collateral damage of a move back to Arizona. But then in an unplanned trip, I found myself on I-35 today, driving through Lady Bird’s labor of love.
I didn’t have time to stop. I was on a mission to get to a hospital down the road in time for my brother’s surgery. There’s a small window between his release to ICU and the time he switches from backless gown to jammy bottoms and I need that tushy photo, dammit. I raced along at 80 mph, glancing at the little State Flowers with the promise I’ll find time for a run along a country road before I leave. My soul needs it.
I grew up with these two guys. We were inseparable partners in crime. A shy bunch, we were all we had. The Pinky Outpost, Croquet Destruction Derby, Monopoly to the death. They were my best friends.
And now here I am, at a hospital where both of them are confronting their mortality in the same week. I sit in an icy waiting room and dream of that annual Smith Boy bluebonnet outing, of runs across Texas with the faithful jeep in tow and a brother badgering you for a column, of one more clod fight on the farm. I assumed they’d always be there. The joys of youth are lost on the young. Why didn’t I stop to admire them more?
Bluebonnets are precious. Never, ever take them for granted …
Hope all is well with your bluebonnets.
thank you. out of ICU and looking pretty good. fingers crossed.
ps hilarious pseudonym! well played.
All digits crossed in this neck of the woods.
Miss you.
😉
Wow. I didn’t realize I was up and at the computer at 4:55 AM.