Sometimes, our lives end up where we started in the beginning.....My first memories are when I was about five ....I remember being high up in a Mimosa tree, looking down .....I even remember the branches that I climbed and how sturdy they were under my tiny, bare feet....The tree was huge, and it was full of fuzzy pink blossoms....thousands of them.....with tiny honey bee's buzzing, and small black ant's crawling around in single file, and on this day, to my delight, I remember seeing a long black and yellow catterpillar chewing on a juicy green leaf......I felt safe in that big ole tree.....It was strong,..... It was pretty with it's beautiful pink blossoms......It felt like the world was mine sitting on the strong limb I choose to perch myself upon....I remember sitting in that tree for hours that day, wishing I never had to come down......Nobody bothered me because they could see me through the long, green leaves and the tree sat right at the edge of the front yard of my house.......The road beyond curved and around the corner lived many of my childhood friends......By late afternoon, our maid (Lotty) opened the front door and called for me to come in for dinner.......As I climbed down, I saw my mother pulling up our drive way in her long, white station wagon......It had light blue interior and always smelled like my mom, especially when I would ride in the front seat ........I can still see "Lotty" at the stove finishing up dinner and saying "Now Sheila, you go wash up those little hands now, your dinner's waiten." Mom would almost always be beat from working all day and had very little to say until way after dinner....Then it was always......brush your teeth, put your pajamas on, hurry now, it's time for bed......Then the next day was a lot like the last .......Family leaves and there I am, just Lotty and I .....By the end of most days, I always wound up in that beautiful ole tree........My days seem a lot like that now ......My family is grown and gone making their own memories and here I am alone, one day seeming much like the next.......My family comes and goes, but most of the time I find myself alone thinking of and wishing I had that big ole Mimosa tree to climb, with it's beautiful pink blossoms and many green leaves to look through. I wish I was sitting on that strong limb where I sat so many times before, feeling like I was not only safe, but the world belonged to me,........ just one more time.... I wish my friends were still just beyond the curve in the road and I could see my mom pulling in the drive in that long, white station wagon......I wish I could hear my sweet "Lotty" calling my name and the smell of dinner cooking on the stove waiting for my little hands to dig in...................I think I'll plant a Mimosa tree this Spring when the weather warms...right at the edge of my own front yard...........................and maybe my life can end up the way I remember the beginning..............sitting in a beautiful Mimosa tree, safe, and at peace, feeling like the world is only mine............and at any moment a long, white station wagon is going to pull up in the drive way with the smell of my mom and the sight of that light blue leather interior.....
