{"id":1925,"date":"2020-05-07T03:36:34","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T03:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/?p=1925"},"modified":"2024-06-04T20:30:35","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T20:30:35","slug":"pieces-of-april-morning-in-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/?p=1925","title":{"rendered":"Masquerade parade"},"content":{"rendered":"

April is tricky; it holds the best and the worst moments in my life. Reflecting upon the day in City Park when We said \u201cI do\u201d \u2014 i fly high. Blooms and buds and love abounds. Recalling the moment He was hit, and later transitioned \u2014 i free fall. Cement and machines and permanent stillness. The mind tries to forget, but the cells remember.<\/p>\n

So i usually try to \u2018be gone\u2019 from wherever my home base is for the entire month of April.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Destination Camping:
Backyard<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Anniversary with Tommy\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/div>\n

Navigating daily life in a different locale keeps the mind stimulated\u2026and distracted. (i did take one journey to commemorate our anniversary…to camp out back in our thirty-year old tent.) However this year there is a viral pandemic. There is no travel, diversionary or otherwise. Instead, there are sheltering-in-place orders and the world\u2019s people are donning masks for protection.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Back in 2011, dear Mia designed a kerchief to be waved in the second-line at Tom\u2019s Fare-Thee-Well.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Musician Alex
New Orleans<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Designer Mia
New Orleans<\/p><\/div>\n

Forward to early April 2020. Mia texts me a photo wearing the same kerchief as a mask. Seeing Tom’s image come to life in that way instills a sense of\u2026sangfroid (look it up, i did). Then on Easter Sunday a photo arrives from another New Orleans friend, Alex, also wearing the bandana as a mask.<\/p>\n

Earlier that morning my twin, Kurt, had sent me an audio message. In it, to playfully annoy his children, he belted out a best-I-ever-heard classic rendition of an old Easter Sunday school hymn about Christ’s resurrection, \u201cHe Lives!\u201d Beholding Alex’s picture, <\/span>I shout the chorus with name replacement, \u201cHe Lives! Tom Lives!” Tom Epps has been conjured to this earthly realm, and i ache for more. So i ask.<\/p>\n

Looking back from the perspective of May, i feel shamefully selfish for that solicitation. And in light of our new surreal real, those sentiments seem trivial. But the sugar kindness in wearing Tom\u2019s kerchief, breathed life into his image\u2026and thereby, into me. In this time of unprecedented uncertainty and isolation, i feel neither. We are family, friends…we’re in our cells, our selves.<\/p>\n

COMIC RELIEF AUDIO: HE LIVES by Kurt Miller<\/p>\n

Stay well, please.<\/p>\n

\"\"

my Marcy
New Orleans<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

my Ryan
New Orleans<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

cousin Jenny
Cleveland<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

darlin’ Judith
Galveston<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

oh Nadene
Mendocino<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

artist Julie
Mendocino<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

cousin Beth
B’ham<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Jo Joanna
Cleveland<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

cousins Guy and Jenna
B’ham<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

chef Marc
Mendocino<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

pal Cally
Mendocino<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

cousin Andy, namesake Thomas
Charleston<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

nephew Scotty
Los Angeles<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"\"

sweet Anissa
Hermosa Beach<\/p><\/div>\n

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Julie’s Totem<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

nephew Brad honey
Hermosa Beach<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Elvis Epps<\/p><\/div>\n

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Hey Ya’ll:<\/p>\n

You are so beautiful to me. – Joe Cocker (had to)<\/p>\n

You didn’t have to love me like you did
\nBut you did, but you did
\n(And I thank you) – Sam and Dave<\/p>\n

Hey Virus:<\/p>\n

Don’t let us get sick
\nDon’t let us get old
\nDon’t let us get stupid, all right?
\nJust make us be brave
\nAnd make us play nice
\nAnd let us be together tonight.\u00a0 – Warren Zevon<\/p>\n

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April is tricky; it holds the best and the worst moments in my life. Reflecting upon the day in City Park when We …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-54","category-61"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1925"}],"version-history":[{"count":98,"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2225,"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925\/revisions\/2225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}