I wish those days could come back once more

I wish those days could come back once more

To Him Who led His people through the wilderness, for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever.

Psalm 136:16 (AMP)

By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.

As I reflect on the past year, I can’t help but to bring into account the previous years that have gone by like snow in Southern Florida yet they seem to hang on as picturesque as fog on a mountainside.

At this cherished moment the New Year has officially made its curtain call and I’m in awed remembrance of Stevie Wonder’s song “I Wish.”

     For me this is a retrospective idyllic look back at the idiosyncrasy and cerebral reminders and circumstances of good ole days.

Stevie’s hook of, “I wish those days could come back once more, why did those days ever have to go? I wish those days could come back once more, why did those days ever have to go? Cause I love them so”, takes me on a roller coaster ride that is filled with more sharp points and turns than a barrel of fish hooks.

     As I wish those days could come back once more, I want to share the ease of innocence as children were then against the abrasive texture and hardened souls of what our children have to contend with today.

As I wish those days could come back once more, I reminisce and cradle in the warmth of love that was an inherited trait that connected neighbors and created bonds, bonds that were built from borrowing a stick of butter to a cup of sugar.

I wish those days could come back once more, where struggles built families and families were made stronger when they came to the aid of the other no matter what they were going through; they were going through it together!

There was no thing as coexisting, we were one.

Our oneness would not allow us to see the differences that would eventually separate us with the vengeance of self hate and a need for generations to form armies of mass assimilation.

I wish those days could come back once more, when every neighborhood had a Ms. Essie that would feed anybody that was hungry or a Ms. Geneva whose biscuits you could dip in red kool-aid and share them with your best friend, Larry.

I wish those days could come back once more, where men could congregate under the trees for games of checkers and social drinking and when Ned the Wino had a little too much to drink no one would beat him to death; instead the men would watch him as he slept it off.

I wish those days could come back once more, when neighbors could correct the inappropriate behaviors of children without the fear of being subjected to a drive-by shooting.

I wish those days would come back once more, when innocence was a way a life and things seemed so simple then.

When I used deductive reasoning in the analytical process in the summation of, “I wish those days could come back once more,” I see that the common denominator and underlining distinct correlation is that at each point of contention involves the actions of human beings, people, like you and me.

I wish then, that people would go back to being un-adulterated positive influences in situations that tug at and strain our core to deplete us of all God likeness.

In the midst of troubles this year, I pray that we find the needed comfort, the settling peace and the wondrous joy of what it was that we saw in the people of those days that made us act so innocent.

Looking back on when I was a little nappy headed boy. Then my only worry was for Christmas was what would be my toy. Even though we sometimes would not get a thing. We were happy with the joy the day would bring. I wish those days could come back once more why did those days ever have to go? Cause I love them so….—Stevie Wonder’s,” I Wish”.

People, without God nothing is possible; With God ALL things are possible.