A Simple Deep Joy

The heat broke in the middle of the day and I took aging Cello for a slow walk up our street, past the small weatherboard houses and the motel looking flats. Cello and I walking slowly, he going blind from age, I still sore from my fall and trying to be very careful where I placed my feet. And then swooping down the road came Felix, from the family across the street from our house, riding his bike, a grin on his face from the sheer pleasure of it all, 'Hi, Joan," he called out to me. A young boy whom I have come to know, for whom I want all the joy of life, soaring down the fresh wind, calling out my name--a 14 year old boy who for so many years I did not know, living in a world renowned city so far from here, lives now so close to my heart. For one moment, I too soared unafraid of falling, held in the sweetness we can give each other.

Felix, the chef with his mom, Virginia, Fitzgibbon Avenue, 2013