The After-Life and Joanne Beats a Bully.

We were talking about the here-after on Friday night, when a friend suggested that she was concerned ...maybe afraid, of what lies on The Other Side.

It prompted me to remember the things I used to Remember when I was very young.

My only Baby photo: Around the time of the first dreams
and noticing that  my nose was on upside down. 

I remembered coming from a place where everything was swirling about. As a child I would have dreams about that place, constant motion, swirling. In my sleep I would dream the swirling so much that I would wake up so dizzy I would throw up on the bed.*  The good part was that I would get the day off school, the bad part was that everyone thought I was the weird kid. Particularly the school Bully, George B___. I won't use his full name just in case he reads this (if he ever did learn to read) and comes around and bashes me up. Again.

The last time he did that, I was walking home from school when he set upon me for no apparent reason. The only time I had been in a fight as an 8 year old was with a little wooden chair. I had been to Sunday School and whilst apparently bored with the content, I managed to wedge my right leg in between the rungs of the chair, so firmly, I couldn't extract it. In fact, someones' Dad had to come along and pull the chair apart to release the said leg.  I remember thinking it's just as well Jesus was a carpenter, so perhaps He would be able to fix the chair later.

The Era of events. Yep, I'm the little one! 

Anyway, George B was beating me up something bad when he suddenly stopped. I didn't know why at first because it's hard to see anything when you are curled up in a tight ball with your eyes clenched shut.  Fortunately for me and unfortunately for George B (not Bush , I just realised) my good friend Neil Drewitt from around the corner  had a Big sister. And I mean a BIG sister.  Joanne lifted George B from on top of myself and "placed" him on the ground. She was just one year older but about 20 kg heavier. She sat on top of George and gave him a right thrashing, until he ran off crying up the street. As if that wasn't good enough, Neil & Joanne's pint-sized Father went around to George's place and threatened to do the same to his Dad.

I had learned my fighting ability from my Father who was not interested in getting involved in the incident, but that didn't matter in the end, as George left me alone for ever and Neil and Joanne and I did lots of things together with a new bravado.

But like the incident with the fighting, my parents remained blissfully unaware that I always felt that I remembered where I had come from . Until now.

Message to George: I got friends. 

And as I said to my friend Meggsie on Friday night, I have a deep belief that when the time comes, I will  sit on "The Other Side" and that memory will come back again. And I believe that this whole life will suddenly seem like a few trivial minutes of time. And that we will sit back and laugh and say "Ha...Now I remember...this is where it started and this is the Good side."

I don't fear death, but rather wonder about it.

Well, certainly not as much as George B feared Joanne.



* P.S I must tell you another time about how this relates to discovering that my nose was on upside down.

Cheers!

Ned Hoskin
www.wedbyned.com.au
http://saidbyned.blogspot.com/