My Dear Mother:
I am thinking of you fondly today, and well, missing you a lot too, so Jill said I should just go right ahead to the place in my heart, beyond the wrong doing & right, to the field where you are, and talk to you, so here I am. I’m really excited to tell you that Jill & I have just returned from a grand adventure, to mighty Africa no less, and Ethiopia, Uganda, and Rwanda precisely! Jill & I, we’ve been here & there, and we’ve looked & we’ve seen…and not judged…this land of Africa, but I must say Mom,
Jill kept me close, right next to her heart, for so strange and unique these folks were from me on the outside, and well, I’m pretty sure they may have found me strange, and unique too…I don’t think they meet many Dills travelling the world, and visiting their Country. I could not meet & greet, and shake their hand, like I usually do, because you see Mom, most folks are so very poor where we were in Africa, Jill feared they would snatch me away for their very own, and keep me, or sell me for a Bur or 2, and then how would I meet & greet all the rest of the folks of the world, in all the places Jill & I are yet to see, and yet to be? But I peeked from Jill’s pocket and it was her turn to meet & greet, to shake their hand, and say hello neighbour, and “I see you” and “see me too” 
Some people live in the cities Mom, but some also live in the bush, and paint their faces with very cool make-up, and they have tattoos, beautiful beaded bracelets and necklaces, just like we do. 
We saw grammas & grampas, moms & dads, & kids…whole families, communities, with rulers who say what’s right & wrong for them, just like we have. They grow food, and care for each other, they have traditions and ceremonies, their life’s full of love and full of meaning.
It didn’t matter that they lived in stick or grass houses Mom, gosh, it was too hot for houses like we build here in the West anyway. 
They work hard, and want the best for their families, just like we do, and Jill & I saw…and felt…our samenesses, and we pondered again why all the world couldn’t get along, share our planet, our home for all of us, and live as one. And when Jill shook their hands, and we looked in their eyes, we saw just how much we were the same on the inside,
and its like John Lennon says…right then and there in Africa Mom, we could imagine no boundaries between us, no countries…it wasn’t hard to do, nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too. No need for greed or hunger, just one human race all across the world, a brotherhood of man. 
Seems to Jill & me Mom, we in the West here, we have a lot of everything too, food and water and luxuries, and well a lot more stuff, stuff, stuff than the folks living in Africa…most have so very little…it seems awfully unfair….couldnt we, shouldn’t we, learn how to share? 
What they do have tho…are strong spirits, and so much more joy it seems, even tho they have so much less, and I think we can learn much from their ways too…to seek ever a joy from within. “Imagine All The People Sharing All The World”. You know I do, just like you taught me to, we can get there by kindness, and by sharing all that we have and know, and by accepting each other as one…race, one home….Earth, one religion…love. 
So we’re starting at home, right where we are, to do what we can each day to help someone in need, be kind, give a smile, mend a hurt, lend a hand. Turn to our neighbour and say “how are you…I see you…you matter to me”. And to folks who life far, we’ll close our eyes, imagine this peace, and send love thru the sky. 
Its free and its easy, it grows in our hearts, there’s a wee Dill in each of us waiting to start. Its all that you taught me Mom, its just who you were, and my practising love is how your life lives on. So I’ll say bye for now Mom, there’s much work to do, and I’m up for the task. Ever & always, your Pickle of Peace, I know you’ll be proud of what your Dill can do! Love IS the Way! Your loving Pickle-boy South
