Free, free fallin’

Time has a tendency to sneak up on us and, as we grow older, our understanding of just how precious of a resource time is increases, gains clarity.  Much of my free time this summer, a moment here a moment there, has been spent watching a ginger plant emerge from the soil.  I placed the root months ago, hoping that it would grow into a plant – creating, eventually, more roots.

As spring transitioned to summer and summer into fall, it became painstakingly obvious just how slow growing of a plant ginger is.  Each small progression seemed to take an eternity.  The single horn of green lingered on the top of the root, unchanged.  Then it was more a small shoot of green.  This grew taller, revealing for the first time the potential of leaves, lines wrapped around the green point that reached incrementally for the sun.  Then a divide, two leaves still tightly furled, their tips touching in a gingerly embrace.  Then, they moved apart, sought a quiet independence from the other, remaining connected at the base and through a light kinetic wavering at their tips – one individual.

This gradually “becoming” of something that already is, is not dissimilar to our own watched progressions.  With the first seed of potential, our arrival seems, from the perspective of watchful adults, almost imperceptible.  Even from the perspective of the individual this passing of time goes, initially, unnoticed.

Such was my progression from the tiniest of infants floating, suspended, then dealt that harsh blast of the reality of emergence.  Is this all there is, we might have asked had we possessed the worldly reflective wisdom of our elders.  Still we persist, taking each moment, each day as it comes.  Doing what we can, when we can with the time we are given.

Many memories are dust, blown away in the instant in which they occur.  Others linger, like the ginger seeking to establish its first leaves.  One memory that has remained intact, that has guided my moments is a concert I attended in Orchard Park, NY, July 4, 1986.  The concert featured The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.  What stayed with me the most was the energy that emanated off Petty.  The memory of the moment resonated more clearly than ever on October 2, 2017, when I heard the news that Tom Petty was dead at the age of 66.

The Grateful Dead was great.  Dylan – who I have seen several times since – was great.  It was Petty who captured my spirit, and my heart.  His songs lingered in my head as I passed through the years, and the energy and messages he shared inspired me to run down my dreams and reminded me that, yes, “The waiting is the hardest part.”   

Petty’s messages drove me to do more and inspired so much of what I have done.   It was this inspiration that led to gifted tickets for the CMAC show that took place July 2, 2017.  Just two days shy of 31 years to that day when I first heard Tom Petty perform, I was again in the audience listening to his sweet, soulful serenade.

Things can never be the same, and all that any of us can do is move forward from where we are.  The ginger plant lingers still, on the edge of opening, moved inside as cold winds assemble for their winter onslaught.  Colder still with each musical icon that fades from our lives.

D.E. Bentley

Editor, Owl Light News