THE BEST LAID PLANS | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: THE BEST LAID PLANS | Previous Challenge Entry
By Philippa Geaney
08/26/21
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I had my life well planned.
At least up until the age of thirty.

It seemed to my ten-year-old mind, that after age thirty, things went downhill anyway.
My plan was basic. I dressed carefully for school-my tie a cool notch below snug; hair tousled though by no means unkempt; I concentrated on my studies and limited sporting activities to those that fell into my muscular programming.
And I avoided girls.

With three female siblings and me the only boy, I knew a pitfall lay somewhere along the path of freedom for boys and men. The suddenness of the fall was always the surprise. Redemption unobtainable and from all accounts, unsought
.
I’d already had my share of enforced hair rollers, adorned flowers, and jewelry when a fourth female was required at a Jane Austen ball, where even my strong proud father succumbed to the indignity of being Mr. Darcy. Redemption unobtainable and he sought it not.

I tried sorting this out with my father when he and I went fishing or trekking alone. “I don’t like girls Dad. My biggest problem is they laugh too much and wear twenty necklaces that jingle and jangle and look silly.”
He’d listened carefully and smiled. But it was an odd smile, lighting up from somewhere inside and shining out at me.
” You’ll understand one day Jamie”.
“That‘s another thing Dad. I am going to be called James when I grow up. Jamie is for sissies.”
“Well come on then young James. Let’s catch a few fish for our fair bejeweled maidens at home”.

It was as we sat quietly, the current of the river tugging at the corks on our lines that Dad continued the conversation.
“You know Jamie, God is quite partial to jewels. Several passages in Scripture show us that precious stones are a part of God’s idea of beauty. So we can’t really blame girls, if He too likes them.
He continued: ”As early as the Exodus we learn He made sure the Egyptians pressed precious gold and silver and jewels into the hands of the departing Hebrews. And in the Book of Isaiah He promises to make brilliant jewels a part of the buildings we will live in. It’s clear He hid jewels in the earth for us to search out and enjoy. Each pressed and heated carbon molecule is simply lit by the fire of Love. For us to admire-especially His girls.
I hadn’t known that. It needed further consideration.
***

I had my life well planned, with a few allowances.
At least until I was forty.

By thirty my Residency at St Vincent’s Hospital was completed and my career in Intensive Care well established. The downhill slope hadn’t appeared and surprisingly, what I once thought of as a sure pitfall along life’s way, turned out to be something else.
A tumble it certainly was, but not into a pit.

“James”, my wife’s voice broke into my musings. “You haven’t forgotten we are going to your parent’s for lunch this Sunday after Church?”

“Not for a second Jewels”.
She laughed. Her laugh was the second thing about her that had that arrested my heart those few years ago.
“I’m so pleased to hear that Jamie,” Julie shot back.
I frowned. Julie was the only one allowed to call me Jamie, and she only reverted to it when I called her Jewel.

“Why do you call me Jamie, as if I was a kid?” I reached out with open arms to soften my question, and she folded herself into them; her perfect fit.

‘I call you that to point out egalitarianism. When I’m Jewel, you are Jamie. When I am Julie, you, my darling man are James. My big serious Medic James.” She clasped my face in her hands and kissed me.
I pretended to mutter my reply behind her smothering kisses, hoping she’d not stop.

“I call you Jewel sometimes because you are the only precious jewel I’ll ever want. The moment I saw you in Pediatrics, crouched down, smiling into some little person’s face I understood why people like beautiful shiny things. Something inside of you was lighting up the room.

I didn’t know it fully at that moment”, I returned her kisses because she seemed to be stopping.
“But I knew you were the one for me and that I had to get a diamond ring on your finger.
God loves His Jewels. And I believe He planned one even for me.”

“Uhha”, she smiled.

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