Perspectives on loss

I let go of an old, beloved thing the other day. I had owned this Chevy Blazer from 1985 till this past week, though it actually gave up the ghost a couple years back. I had held onto it, wanting in my heart to get it fixed, but knowing the repair was unreasonable for such an old car. Finally, circumstance (city codes) forced me to get rid of it.
I missed that vehicle...beloved friends and I had taken many a road trip in it. Two of my love lives blossomed in it; I was sad to see it towed down the alley and out of my life.


Perspective arrived on my mother's doorstep today. She was in the hospital for a minor operation and it went well...no bad stories here, but while she was gone overnight and my brother and I were at her house, I saw the morning paper setting out - long after she'd have picked it up - and the difference between the loss of a car and the absence of a person hit home, rolled up in a tight bundle and wrapped in a rubber band.