Corbi Lemmi used to wave the bank statements under her nose, ” if we hadn’t eaten out on Tuesday we could have bought new curtains for the living room window! ”
His wife Emelyn set aside some money and a few weeks later she went on line and found some curtains and showed them to him. ” We can’t put up curtains until we get new windows put in! ” Corbi scolded her.
So she abandoned the curtains and figured out a way to get new windows put in and he said, ” We can’t get new windows until we get new gutters! ”
The windows were never ordered and the gutters were never hung because Corbi insisted the house needed to be painted first.
Corbi would demand what needed to be done to make their home right and Emelyn would try to comply and of course nothing was accomplished because something else always needed to be done first .
One morning the lights in her head all flashed on and Emelyn realized that nothing needed to be done.
On that morning she was looking through her cracked curtainless living room window and she realized that curtains and painted walls and new rain gutters didn’t matter.
Their house had bueen built by an expert and it’s walls and foundation were firm and sound.
Emelyn and Corbi were wrapped and swaddled in the sound of Corbi’s voice and the words – the many words he hammered into her skull and drilled into his own with the dedication and precision of a master carpenter- had built this sturdy and imposing fortress, complete with a moat
Anita Marie Godfrey 1967 Honokaa, Hawaii Photo Catalina Godfrey
My Mom used to say this when I did something stupid that could possible end my ( then) short life on Earth.
” What’s the matter with you? ” she would say in disgust ” Do you want to go to Heaven? Are you desperate to get there soon? “
I should confess that I managed to accomplish this foolish goal of mine a half dozen times before I sat down for breakfast every single day of my childhood.
I would sit there, cereal spoon in hand and say.
” No, No I don’t want to go to Heaven. “
Sometimes she caught a note in my voice that rubbed her the wrong way and then I would smile and she would shake her head and leave the room.
This is copy of a painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Louvre (inv. 775) which is dated to 1513-1516 As in the original, the Baptist wears a leopard skin, usually considered an attribute of Bacchus.
