ManUpAdvice

(Submitted on May 15, 2013 at 0500-am)

First, thank you for taking your time to write of your concerns and, in some cases, “worries”. Over the past couple of months I have received numerous e-mails asking for “tell us more about you,” and several other topics. I hope I cover some of what you ask below. I am humbled to know that people want to know more about me.

For those that do not know I am currently out of the United States. I will return in a couple of months.

 “Remembering”

In the evening after my dinner meal, I walk outside to the deck, coffee in hand, and sit in my chair. When everyone is gone and I am alone I have plenty of quiet/me time. I sit there and watch rain clouds move in, listen to children playing in the distance, and watch vehicles roll out.

Last night as I sat there, I started remembering when I was a boy. My mother raised us three boys to be responsible, hard working, and to save. Ever since I can remember we would work all summer while she saved our money, and then a week before school starting we would head to the city to purchase our school supplies, clothes and spend a day at the Amarillo Zoo/Park.

I remember the first time I went to work, (smiling) I lay in bed the night before so excited; I was ready. I didn’t realize I would be doing this every summer till I turned 12. I awoke at 0430 (4:30am), ate breakfast, and then we piled in the truck headed for the cotton fields for hoeing. Hoeing meaning: cutting of weeds that have grown amongst the cotton. I jumped off the truck and was assigned my row. Nothing would get past me, I was like a hawk. Those long and hot summers I wouldn’t change for one minute. I grew up and learned many lessons of friendship, love, hard work, and how to work mind over matter.

Lunchtime was the best! My Mom would make us tortillas with beans and tortillas with pappietas/potato’s burritos. I would hurry up and eat, then go find a nice cool shaded area, hopefully on some form of grass if not then on the dirt, and take a nap before starting the second part of the day. Remembering those naps, I am sitting here with a huge smile, I napped so hard it was like an awakening.

One day, as I was working, I found a little nest with one little baby bird. I picked up the baby bird, put it in my front pocket, and took it home. I was going to keep it as a pet, teach it to do tricks, maybe to send messages as I had seen on TV. That first night I snuck it in bed with me, but I was so scared that if I turned I would smash it; I never did that again. Every morning I would go outside, say “good morning,” pet my bird and feed it a worm. In the evenings when I returned from work I would do the same.

One afternoon when I came back from work, I was excited to see my bird Joey, which is what I named him, but Joey was gone. I searched everywhere. That night I couldn’t sleep. In the morning I ran to see if he had returned and still nothing; it was painful running out there and still no Joey. My Father once asked me, “Junior, why so down?” So I confessed of the baby bird and he looked at me and said, “Mijo, dejarlo ir, si lo tuyo va a volver.” (Means: “Son, let it go, if it is yours it will come back.”) I did this for weeks, till slowly with time I let him go.

That year I made the Friona Tx. All Star Little League Baseball team as the catcher. We were playing Muleshoe TX, and I was having the best inning of my little league career; I had thrown two base runners out, and caught a foul ball to end the inning. As I walked back to the dugout holding my helmet, I turned to enter the dugout and on the fence less than three feet away, I saw a bird, and the bird was whistling, chirping, and flapping its wings. As I sat down to remove my gear my dad’s words came back to me, and to this day I have never forgotten those words … … … “Dejarlo ir, si lo tuyo va a volver.” “Let it go, if it is yours it will come back.”

“Always jump in the puddles! Always skip alongside the flowers. The only fights worth fighting are the pillow and food varieties.” ~Terri Guillemets

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