What are the important things in your life?

[Sparrowhawk]

Sometimes we complicate the simplest things in life.

Lately I've been having dreams of having a little child at home, and perhaps they are memories of the joys I remember while our children were growing up. Those years passed by all to soon.

I don't regret anything I have done in life, but now I'm beginning to be selective in what I invest my time in, in what I do, and what is really important in life.

What’s really important in your life?



http://images.chron.com/content/chronicle/comics/archive/2002/11/26/Willy_n_Ethel.686.g.gif

[firstsgtmike]

The Transformation

Forewarned, we had been anxiously awaiting its coming for the past several months. Periodic tracking reports confirmed both the initial sighting and the scheduled date of arrival. Normal preparations were complete and contingency plans made to cover all logical eventualities. Nothing remained but the impotency of waiting.

Everything proceeded according to plan. It arrived on schedule, and was pronounced medically fit and physically sound. None the less, its next several days were spent sleeping, waking only to take nourishment while recovering from the effects of the arduous journey that had brought us together.

I often sat in the darkened room, watching, and waiting. I marveled at its frailness, the complete helplessness and total dependency upon others for survival. Awed, I felt both privileged and humbled to attend this epitome of heroism, this personification of unquestioning, unflinching trust. I could only hope to prove a worthy host.

Stirring, the newly opened eyes revealed the blackest, largest, most compelling pupils I had ever seen. As the focal point of the entire face, they demanded rapt attention from any glance given to the figure as a whole. Almost completely filling the eye sockets, they allowed the merest sliver of white to be seen on either side of the obsidian pupils.

Momentarily, I felt snubbed to insignificance as the unblinking eyes appeared to dismiss me, to glide past as if to deny my existence. Relieved, I realized the piercing eyes were not focusing on a specific object but were photographing the room as a total unit, as though to file it, and therefore me, away for future detailed consideration.

I wasn't aware of exactly when or how the knowledge first came to me. Much like determining when and how I first learned that three plus one equals four. This new knowledge may have been subconsciously planted during the countless sitting, watching, and holding hours we spent together. It may have evolved, traveling from daydreams to night dreams to intuitive awareness. It may have arrived like a bolt of lightning, a moment of insight etched into my memory banks as I looked down into the depths of the two obsidian pools staring up at me. How it happened was immaterial to the greater truth.

YES! I KNOW! I UNDERSTAND! I ACCEPT the awesome responsibility you have entrusted me with. I will do everything I possibly can so as not to fail you. I PROMISE, your journey, your ordeal, will NOT have been in vain.


This alien creature from the other side of infinity came to share with me the wisdom of the ages. If only I could unlock the key to its telepathic communications in time. The clock was ticking, the pages of the calendar relentlessly turning towards the transformation, the Omega and Alpha. The Omega and Alpha, the time when the creature's memory banks would be erased, left blank through total amnesia in a reverse form of Altzheimer's Disease. Cleared of existing memory, they would be blank tapes awaiting new input. Who could EVER replace that which was lost?

One mystery escaped me. Naturally, the knowledge of the alien brain and the Omega and the Alpha of the transformation, came from the creature itself. If it was able to communicate this, why not the rest of it? Why not the totality of information it was trying so desperately to convey? It was analogous to a computer software program. The packaging shows the license, program information, and instructions to transfer it from the disk to your computer. The rest was up to you. The problem I was now facing was with the transfer, and the relentless calendar.

I had tried everything possible to establish the required link. I had focused my will like a laser beam aimed at the creature's brain. Nothing! Through a form of self-hypnosis, I completely relaxed and cleared my brain to be totally receptive to the alien's input. Still nothing! I tried physical head to head, brain to brain contact, to minimize traveling distance for the thought waves. I used my fingers as a bridge, a rolled paper cylinder, the eavesdropping trick of an inverted glass, I even borrowed a stethoscope. I was running out of time and ideas.

I taped and analyzed the creature's howls of discomfort on my stereo system. I attempted a crash course in teaching the creature to speak, made sure a radio or the television was always on. I analyzed every sound, every movement the creature made. I learned nothing.

Later, it seemed as though the alien was beginning to give up on me. The staring intensity of the pupils was fading, the facial expression was softening, the creature seemed more relaxed as though resigned to failure. Still, I was determined. I was aware of the potential loss to the world if I gave up too soon.

I had a premonition as I entered the room and heard strange new gurgling sounds coming from the creature. Apprehensively, I turned on the recorder and stealthily inched my way closer with the microphone. One way or another, the moment had come, the waiting was over. Communication or transformation? Omega and Alpha, the end and a beginning, or the knowledge of the universe? Which was it to be?

As I drew nearer, it seemed as though a blinding light lit up every shadow in the room and reached into the farthest corners of my soul. As I peered down with misty eyes overflowing with emotion, I saw the beaming, smiling face of my infant son, and I knew. I knew from that moment on, MY life would never be the same.

The Beginning




I share this experience with all parents. I dedicate it to my sons Alex, A.J., Mike and Bill E. Farrell.

P.S. I’ve had four opportunities for a different ending. I don’t know what the world has lost as a result of my failures. Perhaps I’m being selfish, but when I look my children, I’m eternally grateful that it turned out as it did. Let someone else solve the puzzle of the universe and be the hero. In my children’s eyes, daddy can do everything, and that’s enough for me.