Travels with Mom

I took a trip to Africa this past month.
At the last minute, my mother decided to come along.
It was a great trip,
everything that I dreamed it would be and more.

Africa is not a place that Mom ever thought of visiting when she was alive.
Her world was so much smaller than it might have been.
But she is now free to go wherever she pleases,
and she sees things with clear eyes that are open
to limitless possibilities and great surprises.

She always was a cat lover
so I expected her to be most enthusiastic about the lions.
There is something deeply appealing about those huge carnivores
acting so much like the household pet
as they bathe or play or simply lie in the sun
gazing out at nothing in particular.
I could watch them for hours,
and did just that from the safety of the Land Rover.

But Mom surprised me.
It was the expansive vistas that she responded to the most,
especially the sunsets over the Kalahari.
Those seemingly limitless vistas awash in brilliant color,
a blaze of finality bearing
the promise of a new beginning.