Touchy, Feely

Dateline: Charmington 1:30am Sunday Morning Column #1

Apparently I have become a touchy feely type of guy. 

I hug more. 

Touch more. 

Hold hands more. 

Smooch more. 

Wasn’t always like this, hardly ever. 

‘cept this…18 months ago I laid dying on a hospital floor, took a crash cart and a bunch of hospital folks to save my life. 

Let me write that again:  SAVE MY LIFE! 

They literally picked me up off the floor and zapped me with electricity and stuck me with needles all of which lead me to… 

…here.  Charmington 1:30am and FREAKIN alive. 

I can be a hardheaded kind of guy, ask my family, ain’t afraid to say “no” but also ain’t afraid to say “I love you.” 

Come here, get closer, tell you a secret, closer come on…there you go…here’s the secret to life:  For gawds sake HUG more, TOUCH more, HOLD HANDS more, SMOOCH more, show LOVE more. 

Show love more every day to everyone who you happen to love. 

If they don’t love you back find love elsewhere. Yeah I said that. 

Tell you this too, when you are laying on the floor and looking up, when all the machines in the joint are hooked to you, when those who fight death for a living look kinda worried…your only thoughts will be about love and those you have attached to it. 

I know. 

In a massive breach of almost dying protocol I’m going to tell you what I was thinking as I was that guy over there laying on the floor dying, yep, here goes… 

…I was at the altar, left over flowers around me, wedding organ player playing a love song or two for $20 bill… 

…and my hand was being held… 

…by my bride of then a few days short of our 50 year wedding anniversary. 

It was her hand that held mine, her hand that lead me out of a kind of scary ass situation even if she was home some 10 or so miles away. 

Get this, if you have love in your life love will also show up when you are dying. 

Who knew, not me that’s for sure. 

So yeah I may, MAY be slightly more touchy feely, may have tears run down my cheeks more, may look at a beautiful flower longer and even try to find out its name, may do all the stuff once not in the wheelhouse of the once cranky. 

And when I give that damn bathroom mirror a quick side glance, always quick as I am fearful of what I see staring back at me, I now see someone who hugs… 

…who draws awful looking flowers on scraps of paper and leaves them on pillows that smell of Christmas gift perfume and… 

…who holds hands… 

…who rubs tired feet… 

…who sneaks in an extra smooch or three… 

…and who has no plans of stopping. 

You see, the view from the floor, it you know, stays with you. 

My simple advice to you is this…hug, touch, hold, smooch as much as you damn well can because there’s this… 

…someday you’ll won’t be able to do any of that. Period, done DONE. 

…so do it the frig now… 

…while you can. It will be what those you love remember the most.

There ya go:  529 or so words, 29 minutes write time.

db