A while back, I can’t remember exactly when, my mother was feeling a little blue. She was reminiscing about the time we were all little girls. Her thoughts wandered to a time when she loved making our clothing, cooking for us, taking us to the park or the beach, and just taking care of us. She was so nostalgic and soon a couple of tears rolled down her cheeks. She made me wish I could turn back time just for her. My sisters and I love our lives and she is happy for us, but one of us is in Texas, another in upstate New York, two hours away from me, in Long Island. I couldn’t help thinking that day how orca whales always have their offspring with them... for life.

So I thought and wished, with love only, that in her next life she could come back as an orca whale. And that is how I started the “next life” wishes. Here are some I have thought of. I will write about other people in my life as they come up.

~My mother: As I mentioned, an orca, for the reasons stated above.

~My husband: A platypus. It is his favorite animal and I believe he is as silly and remarkable as this Australian monotrene, an egg laying mammal. (there are only two in the world, the other being the Echidna, also Australian.)

~Louie, my brother-in-law (my husband’s brother): A seahorse. He is a wonderful father dedicated to his two girls. I believe he is more of a mother to them than their mother. The girls want to be with him and it is a great thing he has custody of them. I wish for him to give birth to his young which the male seahorse does.

~Connie, my sister: An African termite. She has a great love of children and would have had as many as she could have. These termites give birth to 30,000,000 “babies” a year and also play an important ecological role, recycling nutrients from dead wood and improving soil fertility. She would be a great mother to them all!

I would like to take this opportunity today to wish her a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

~David, my nephew: A cheetah. When he was younger, he imagined he could run as fast as a cheetah, the fastest land animal in the world. (A peregrine falcon is faster reaching speeds of 200 miles an hour diving or stooping.) I can hear him now: “Nyah, nyah, you can’t catch me.”

~Diane, my niece: An American Pit Bull Terrier. She loves dogs and especially loves these. She knows how to care for them and knows they really are misunderstood and can be a good family pet. But I’d like her to be a bull terrier in a home with someone who cares and loves them as much as she does. Please visit her and her husband’s website: Canine-Comrade, Inc.

~Daniel and Angela: Siamese kittens. These two siblings are so close. They have so much energy and are extremely playful. I cannot see them separated in the next life so in my wish they won’t be. They can be as naughty, playful, and adorable as Siamese kittens.

"God generates beings, and sends them back over and over again, till they return to Him."
~Koran