Jai Guru Deva Om

Yesterday I was listening to the I Am Sam soundtrack. I love that movie, and I love that soundtrack. If you don’t know it, you should go get it. It’s all Beatles covers, done by interesting artists. I can’t decide if Eddie Vedder’s “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”, Ben Folds, “Golden Slumbers,” or Sarah McLachlan's, “Blackbird” is my favorite. I could list others, too.

Anyway. I was on my way home from teaching my last session in West Chicago. (I’ve been working at an after school program for the last two and a half months with a group of teenage girls, and yesterday was our goodbye party.) It was nice. But Thursday in general was sort of gross and chilly and rainy. Until about 6:00. Suddenly the sun started to peek through the clouds. So the light was lovely – that mixture of dark blue puffy rain clouds and spots of white light. I was driving through the north side of down, coming down a hill by the train station. I was stopped by a red light as the commuter train was letting people off. I Am Sam was on, and “Across the Universe” started playing. Just as the lyrics, “Nothing’s gonna change my world,” started playing, I saw off to my right, an elderly couple.

They had their backs to me, but I’d say were close to being in their 80s. She was small and stooped and gray. I watched her latch the white picket fence – they were just starting their walk. He had rounded shoulders and was wearing a wrinkly fisherman’s cap. His hands clasped the bars of a walker. The song played on, “Nothing’s gonna change my world… Nothing’s gonna change my world…” As I watched, she slipped her arm through his and leaned towards him a bit as they began shuffling down the hill.

And then the light changed. I had to turn, and the moment was over.

Our two year anniversary is on Tuesday.

It’s a sweet thing to come home to my husband and realize how much I look forward to growing old with him.