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I was the
winner! Oh yes!
“I am
definitely not ready to show the photos yet!” was my statement to myself and my
wife.
Hokey
Mokey have I ever changed, I was once young and vibrant. I once climbed
mountains and was a guide for others. I was always a step or a more ahead of
others that I led up that mountain. Yikes… the photos show it only too well.
Today it
aint so. I am still vibrant and alive and more than ready to go… I just can’t
climb the mountain any more.
Funny
enough though… my request made on that mountain those years ago was upon my
death, my body was to be cremated and my ashes would be taken to the top of
that mountain.
BUT - As I
age rapidly all the people that I asked to do this task with my ashes are also
too old and more frail than I am. That
will never happen!
So how
did this resolution of not showing the photos come into the mix today?
My
daughter asked me to look for a photo of her sitting on top of Lion Rock
Mountain in Hong Kong. That meant
digging into the old photo album with the loads of snapshots that were printed
and my wife has organized into the many albums labeled, “Hong Kong”.
I started
opening the albums one by one looking for Lion Rock photos. Whoa – did I ever come across a bunch!
We must have
climbed that mountain a dozen times each year that we lived there! At least it seemed much that to my daughters –
I am sure.
For those
of you that don’t know me – we lived in Hong Kong from January 1981 until June
1985. We left Canada in December 1980 and arrived a month later to the
wonderful world of South East Asia and all that it had to offer.
Oh the
memories that came flooding back with each photo! Wonderful – wonderful memories with each one.
There in the
photos are a much, much younger Murray and Alida Lincoln. Their two daughters
were just little kids when they arrived to that brand new world that they would
take part in. The two little girls
transformed into beautiful young ladies from the first photo album to the last
one. The transformation was amazing to look over again… and again.
Two
beautiful young women were developing right under our nose and we had the great
joy to take all the photos in all those albums – all 14 of them!
It was in
the one photo album when I flipped that one stack of plastic photo holders
over... that I saw the most startling photo of all. There I was with my hands
raised in a victory pose. Legs spread
apart and hands shooting skyward. My mouth was open as I was shouting a victory
shout.
I had
made it to the top of Lion Rock again!
Yes! The victory was so sweet. I had earned another Gold Medal in the
life of vibrancy and aliveness. My
bright yellow T Shirt with YMCA boldly stamped on it declared my affiliation
that day. I was the winner! Oh yes!
As I looked
at myself in that photo… the jubilation was nothing short of amazing even now…30
years later.
But as I looked
at the photo closer there was a striking difference between then and now. I was
of so very young.
There was
no belly then. I was at least 30+ pounds lighter.
In 1982
if I had tried to get to the top of Lion Rock Mountain in Hong Kong at the
speed that I did it then – with a 30+ pound back pack on I would have been not
standing there with my hands raised in victory… but rather laying on top of the
rock gasping for more air and a huge bottle of water! I would be looking through groggy eyes at the
trail that led downwards – all the way back home… and I would be calling for a
helicopter to fetch my from my mountain perch.
It would
have been harder too – in 1982 to have added another heavy load of aging to
that body.
Good Lord
I am tired and almost puffing as I write this now… thinking of what happened to
my old body since 1982.
But oh
the memories… wonderful memories.
Yesterday
I scanned all the photos of my daughters that were in the two albums. I will
give these digital treasures to them shortly.
The fun
part now is that their own children, Anda’s four boys and Dana’s boy and girl –
are all the same age their moms were when they came home from Hong Kong. Dana was just about 17 – the age of her
son. And Anda was just about 15 ½ years
old… close to the age that her two oldest boys are now.
I am sure
that my reaction to this bit of photo journalism is because I am old but
memories are young. These two dynamics
in my life come crashing at each other and I have to deal with it. Oh boy.
Are you
laughing at me? Go look in the mirror
and take look at what happened to you! Take away 30 years and see what you have
in your photo. Gotcha!
BTW If
you are on Facebook – someday soon you will see these photos.
Okay…
here it is.. the one startling photo of me… the one that I want to stand at the
side of my coffin – or urn as the case may be…
~
Murray Lincoln ~
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