protected by your wings...

boho brother (jon-erik) & cedar on christmas day, canon 50D

Dear Uncle Jon-Erik ~

Meeting you was such a unique experience for me. It was like you came into my life swinging on a rope from trees with your oiled leather hat on just like Indiana Jones. I remember the first time you held me after a long day of traveling from Canada, you sunk into the rocking chair and just tuned everything out and sat with me for a few hours. You kept calling me a "beautiful, fragile eggshell soul" that you wanted to envelope with your wings and protect like a bird. I loved how each time you said this, you made your arms look like wings hovering over me. It was then that I knew you were different and cool and spiritual and had a lot to teach me. I felt so safe with you that I instantly fell asleep in your arms and you fell asleep too and my mommy just couldn't stop taking photos (she thinks I don't notice these things when my eyes are closed).

I thought it was cool that you would go on long walks for hours on the beach with your leather hat, camera strapped around you and a bag to collect sea treasures. You'd bring them back and put them on the floor in a cool design. You'd tell us stories of your travels and how you were the only one with a tshirt and sandals while everyone else was bundled up. Something about it being obvious you were Canadian. It must be cold where you live because you talked about you needing to wear like four sweaters and coats and even your dog has winter clothes. I guess that's why you were outside when no one else was over here.

I remember every morning when you'd come into our bedroom and see that my mommy and daddy had been up all night with me you would say "you guys are on the red eye train to love" with this huge smile on your face and they would look at you like they wanted to eat you for breakfast. You never took the night shift because you must like your sleep. I don't think my mommy and daddy like to sleep because they stay up with me.

I thought you talked really cool. I liked hearing you say phrases like "cosmic junction" and "feminine energy". I think that means you're a hippy. I want to be one when I grow up. I heard that if you have a Volkswagen bus that you're in the hippy club. We have a bus, so does that mean I'm a member? Perhaps if I start referring to the fact that my mommy gives me a bottle when I scream for it as a cosmic junction, eh? See...I threw in something Canadian just for you.

I'll never forget the look on my mommy's face when you showed her the transformation you made on our veranda as a gift to us. How you made it more spacious and redesigned the plants and flowers in each pot and hung candles and lanterns and prayer flags. Now it looks like a cool Zen garden with each plant covered in all the rocks you collected. I heard her say she will now take me out there in the mornings for breakfast and that they want to get a baby hammock to hang. Dude...that so rocks. Thanks, man.

But wait...there's more. During the photo shoot of us that my mommy did, I was naked and I peed all over you and rather than get grossed out, you cupped my pee in your hand and wiped it on your jeans without flinching. That's some serious manly coolness. Lets do it again but this time I'll poop and we can use it to paint stripes on our faces like the Indians.

So, you're gone and I already miss you, your thick Canadian accent, your stories about living in the woods and heating your food over the wooden stove. I miss hearing your passion for art and all things creative and earthy. I have a feeling when I come visit you, we'll have many adventures in the forest and lakes...just like my daddy had when he grew up.

Until then, I will feel protected by your wings.

I love you, dude.

Cedar