The Cactus and the Camel, a Story of Love, Heart, and Sadness

Many years ago, in Kentucky, when I was first starting out, my Aunt Bobbie gave me two gifts as she and my Uncle Dick were moving out west. The first was a piece of a cactus that was not supposed to get more than 4 inches (you can see it in the background) and the second was my mother's ceramic nativity scene that she made for my relatives many moons ago.

I cherished both, although the cactus has been like Audrey, the alien plant, in Little Shop of Horrors, and never stops growing. It is in it's 7th planter and is too heavy to move. Still, I move it from location to location (with memories of the time I did so in St. Mathews, Kentucky, when an arm fell off, post run, and the gooey glue got all over my skin and I, sweating, rubbed it in my eye. It was hell. Showers wouldn't remove the pain).

Fast forward to kid departure, Thanksgiving 2017. The boys were rearranging furniture to get the house in order, and I decided I could move the cactus myself.

I failed. Abu jumped up to help and was just in time as the cactus toppled onto the nativity set sending thorns in our arms and taking down one of my mother's (via my aunt's) camels. It shattered in numerous pieces and Mustapha quickly came to the rescue with a broom and dust pan. We swept and I did my best to put it together with super glue (and my fingers can attest to it, as I glued them together and still did a bad job of saving the camel).

It made me sad. I'm sad for the day I burned my eyes with cactus glue and sadder than the camel is no longer its beautiful, one-piece majestical self.

And the symbolism is not lost on me. We had a fantastic five days and I loved every second of it. Everything went extremely well and the only mishap was at the departure. They were packing up to leave when this all went down - I guess it was good, as it masked my emotions. I never want them to leave, but I know that they must.

While they left, a cactus from yesterday fell on a nativity set from yesterday. All of it is family and all of it is love...symbolism for love. All of us, Chitunga, Abu, Mustapha and me did the best to fix a quick-to-arrive hazard. I thought about throwing the camel away (actually did), but then scooped it from the trash knowing I'd rather have a broken camel then none at all.

Why? This is family. This is memory. This is what love is all about.