"I'M WEIGHTLESS HERE....!"

A series of essays....

SMARTPHONE PLACED TO CAPTURE EACH TUMBLE, TWIST, AND TURN!

....as seen through my eyes!




By: Jacqueline E. Hughes

Observing children growing like oak tree saplings from year to year should be enough to
embrace even the coldest heart with a certain warmth and fill it with encouragement and the possible belief in one’s own future happiness and well being.

When these children happen to personally relate to you with a prefix as ‘grand’ and magnificent as their beautiful, shining faces bathed in the glow of a full, summer’s moon...they are the most endearing human beings that will ever walk this amazing planet! Grandchildren: such mysterious wonders linking us, personally, with the future and the past.

Upon all of my various trips to the Emerald Isle, sweet Ireland...I’ve felt a certain sensation of, not only love, but the realization that when I’m walking the rolling, green fields and narrow, stone paths I feel no earthly pressures. My body is featherlight and worries seem a million miles away. I am weightless here. 

If I could accurately describe my feeling of floating in complete detail, it would be how I felt after climbing up to the summit of Diamond Hill / Binn Ghuaire, a craggy, little mountain located in Connemara National Park. The view from this height takes in Kylemore Abbey and the sun-sparkled shades of blue that make up the waters of Ballynakill Harbour, the bay far below. 

It may have been the sheer height itself or being able to look down upon the great beauty of land and sea that affected me so deeply. I felt I could walk off the side of the mountain and there would be no earthly, gravitational consequences, whatsoever! Being so high and feeling the frosty wind on my face made me believe I was as weightless as a soaring bird riding a thermal highway. I was as weightless as an opaque cloud casting my shadow upon the sun-drenched landscape far below. Absent of the strife of daily stress and strain, a body in free fall, uniquely relieved of the pressure of floors, scales, hatred, work, racism, and deniers of all shapes and kinds.

Yesterday, I felt this sensation of weightlessness once again. My granddaughter and I were FaceTiming and she was floating right in front of me, on the i-Pad screen resting on my lap, and I was the observer residing in the small, rectangular screen below her. It occurred to me as she tumbled on the trampoline executing her intricate gymnastic maneuvers, hands free, with a huge smile on her beautiful face, that we both were relieved of the pressures of this world...even for a few moments. We were, indeed, weightless here....together in time!

What fun to be able to see my own reactions to her airborne talents in real time! A grandmother’s point of view of visual amazement; the perspective of a proud grandma. 

Brenna celebrates her eleventh year on this earth the seventeen of May. The following is a tribute to this sweet, young lady, my firstborn grandchild, who never fails to genuinely care about others, brighten our world with her smile, and exude goodwill and love to everyone she comes in contact with. But, most of all, she has the ability to make me feel, absolutely, weightless just thinking about her.

A STUDY IN COLOR AND BLACK & WHITE

I'M WEIGHTLESS HERE....!"

                                

She’s not like most female birds in that

her bright, brilliant colors can, and do,

outshine most males. From this position,

she radiates healthiness, rapture. So thinks 

the woman behind the curtain way down below, 

admiring her from afar. Priceless gifts of youth 

and energy flow from within the girl 

as the woman’s expressions lay bare her pride.

Cheeky views of ruffled feathers float within a 

backdrop of azure blue and flash across the little 

screen. Smartphone strategically placed to capture 

each and every bounce, twist, turn of her

acrobatic precision; from one so young. Briefly,  
this youthful energy reminds the woman of her own
childhood so long ago...! Back when the woman played 

cowboys and Indians with her older brother

with King-Shot air rifle and a headdress of brightly colored 

feathers. The getaway horse comprised of chipped, blue paint, 

silver spokes, and a shiny bell rung by a finger of choice.

This modern child resides in a brand new world 

filled with a healthy balance of competition 

and play. The woman encourages the girl to flip one 

more time in order to snap it with her device as she

observes ‘sweet and goofy’ with every click.

Oh, beautiful one, the woman thinks to herself, what pure 

joy to capture this moment in time. How is it 

eleven years have flown by? I am weightless here while 

watching you fly away up into the future.

Little bird, won’t you, please, take me with you? I promise 

only to observe while snapping a million more memories...

"SWEET"

"GOOFY"

Copyright © 2018 by Jacqueline E. Hughes

All rights reserved

Photos Copyright 2018 by Jacqueline E. Hughes

All rights reserved