A Halloween Treat

In less than two weeks, I fly back to Boston for one single reason – I miss my mother. It has been a fast moving year and for the first time, it has almost been a year since my mom and I spent time together. Our next trip to Europe isn’t planned until summer of 2014 and with work being insanely busy and airfares at their crazy prices, I just couldn’t find time to go back East. Then, a month ago, I saw, what I was certain was an online error: A nonstop flight to Boston for $297 INCLUDING taxes and fees. I refreshed my browser twice, but still the fare remained and without trying my luck a third time, I whipped out the credit card and booked it. Only when I got my confirmation Email with the price was I able to believe the price. 

In my early tenure in California, I was somehow young enough to think that I wouldn’t miss where I grew up. After all, I’d spent enough time there and was itching to leave, but as I approach my mid-century, my priorities have changed and along with them, what I want out of life. Last year, perhaps, was one of major importance for me: my parent’s golden anniversary, my cousin’s wedding and the passing of my Great Aunt Lil. All three events had me flying across the country and each time, when I landed, I felt a sense of calm and peace. With each event’s set of emotions, it was harder and harder to give my mother one more hug before I left for the airport.

It seems 2014 is taking shape with a Caribbean cruise and a European jaunt, but what about now? What about 2013? It is still here and I didn’t want to be one of those people who just say they want to do something but then never do. Work has been often times crazy and frustrating. I’ve been sick with food poisoning (never let it be said that one does not need their mother when the porcelain god is your only friend), and just been, at times, feeling a bit out-of-sorts. And recently, as I look at my cousin’s daughter in the midst of a European tour and the way she stays in contact with her mom, she’s indirectly made me so reflective.  While she Skypes and Facebooks with her, when I was in my twenties, it was a different time. I was in Europe looking for payphones and Internet cafes. In fact, my mom still has copies of the Emails and postcards I sent and years later, as we walked those same European streets, not one of those cafes existed anymore. Time does change everything, except, I know, the need to sit with your mother, walk arm in arm and just relish in the time spent together.

On this trip, we’ll turn the clocks back an hour and I joked that she gets to spend an extra hour with me. But, it’s me who gets to spend an extra hour with her. I arrive on Halloween, and it’s the best treat I can think that I’ve given myself all year long.