There’s a spotted little toad sitting on the ground under the water spigot at the cemetery. Everything is dry as a bone, and he’s sitting there looking up at the faucet. Is he hoping it will magically put out some water? Is he figuring out a way to crawl up to the top and turn it on? Does he just keep returning to that spot because he knows there is often water there?
The last is most probable, I suppose.
I fill the bucket with water and return to my mother’s headstone to water the marigold I’ve just planted for her birthday today. As I walk to her headstone, I realize there’s a small hole in the bucket and water is leaking out, but not so quickly that I have to rush.
I use the bucket of water to clean her headstone. Birds often have the gall to make deposits. I give the marigold and the surrounding soil a good drink of water and return the bucket to the spigot.
The toad is still there. He’s sitting in the grass, off a bit, in the same spot he hopped to when I first approached. It appears he didn’t have the courage to come closer, anticipating my return, I suppose, which is actually quite intelligent for a toad, don’t you think?
I decide to let the faucet run for a couple of minutes to produce a big puddle that the toad will be able to enjoy once I walk away. Then I remember the bucket was leaking.
I hang the bucket on the spigot and fill it to the top with water. The slow leak starts, and I look at the toad. He is looking at the bucket.
“Come get a drink and tell all your friends!”
He stares at me, and I’m glad that he hasn’t gotten frightened and hopped away. I decide to walk away from him so he can return to the spigot and enjoy the puddle and what I expect will be an enormous drink.
“God bless you, little sweetie,” I say as I walk away.
I proceed to take a walk around the cemetery and talk out loud to my mother, which has become a long-standing tradition between the two of us since she passed more than 20 years ago. On Mother’s Day and on her birthday in July, I come to the cemetery with flowers.
After the walk I return to the headstone, kneel in front of it, and say my traditional prayer. “God please surround my mother with love and joy and let her feel my love today, and every day.
I love you, Mom. Happy Birthday.”
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