I realized lately that I am always carrying Mom around with me, up there in my brain… Remembering simple things like hanging up clothes to dry on the line just out back…. while Bob, Cleo, Tony and the chickens, expecially BB the newest hen to hatch out some eggs…are milling around our feet…

~♥~

Mom would always, always, at some point sneak up on me while I was trying to put on a clothes pin.  Surprising me with a really hard hug from behind  🙂  One of those hugs that seem to  go on and on, better than anyone else. …She was the only person allowed to give me a hug like that  🙂

With her arms still around me, and wearing one of her best smiles she would whisper in my ear, “You know that I love you right?” and I would just nod and say, “Me too Mom”…That was the kind of hug, where I could still feel after her arms around me while she walked away…

~♥~

Of course the chickens, Bob, Cleo and Tony would all be milling around waiting for a treat.  ~~ BB, the hen who had just hatched out five little chicks would always be in front~~ .  And don’t you dare get between her and those chicks!  She would jump on you and keep squaking and flapping her wings until you backed away… I can still remember pinches from her beak and scratches from her talons.  Ouch!  I only got attacked like that once!  Turns out at even odd Iris could remember a lesson like that.

~♥~

…”and don’t forget to give everyone some fresh water…” would trail off behind me, an escort following me as I walked to the chicken coop.

I could swear that BB (baby black) must be able to see me all the way from the chicken coop! Dad once told me that chickens can see about six times better than us mere humans.

…  Bob would inevitably be right beside me, “Good boy, Bob”…Dad ‘n me worked on him hard teaching him to heal properly.  And now he does it out of habit, his head at the perfect height for a quick pat.

~♥~

So I still hear Mom’s voice in my head all the time, it is actually kind of reassuring.  The little quips that after a while you didn’t seem to notice, but I still hear… “don’t forget to latch the gate”…  She is the voice of my conscious, when I am thinking to myself, should I do this?  I hear her asking me, “…will anyone get hurt?”…

~♥~ Sending you a smile, hope, sweet dreams and a prayer.  – Iris