Comforting Roommate

My roommate Ezekiel and I have been together since I adopted him at birth twenty-years ago. I’m age eighty and the last eight years I’ve been a single parent. Ezekiel and I have been supportive of each other especially during the COVID pandemic. When I arrive home from the library or shopping, there is Ezekiel’s nose pressed against the window pane watching birds at the feeder, kids playing and dogs chasing balls in a field across the street. We enjoy sharing what we have done and felt during the day.

Oh, my apologies – Ezekiel is a stuffed bear who thinks he’s human. Emotionally and physically Ezekiel is human. We talk with each other when feeling fearful or lonely. Children from one to one-hundred need to have a stuffed animal, toy or soft blanket that brings them comfort during this health crisis. This is especially true for people my age. Psychologists call such an animal, toy or blanket “transitional objects” that help comfort a child during the day and help them to sleep at night. Any parent knows what I’m talking about!

There remains a child within us all who needs comforting during this crisis. Ezekiel and I do that for each other. Perhaps I’m a bear who thinks he’s human.

David was a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist for 35 years before the publication of his first collection of poems, “A Heart on Fire, Poems from the Flames.” He continues to write poetry and makes presentations on poetry of Eastern and Western Mystics and leads poetry workshops as a faculty member of OLLI College at the University of Southern Maine. David is a regular contributor to Kind Over Matter. David plays the “Shakuhachi,” a Japanese bamboo flute used in Zen Buddhist meditation and celebration. He combines his flute music with poetry readings. He has taught Tibetan and Western poetry to Buddhists monks at Sera Jhy Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in South India. He earned his Master of Theology and Ph.D. in Pastoral Psychology degrees from Boston University. You can contact David via email or follow him on his website.

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