"Remembering"

To celebrate National Poetry month


Remembering


And you wait. You wait for the one thing
that will change your life,
make it more than it is--
something wonderful, exceptional,
stones awakening, depths opening to you.

In the dusky bookstalls
old books glimmer gold and brown.
You think of lands you journeyed through,
of paintings and a dress once worn
by a woman you never found again.

And suddenly you know: that was enough.
You rise and there appears before you
in all its longings and hesitations
the shape of what you lived.



Rilke




This wise poem by Rilke reminds me to be grateful for my life just as it is. It is already exceptional; stones awaken and depths open to me in the family and friends with whom I have the great honor to be in relationship. On this journey through remarkable lands, I've discovered treasures, and one of them is me "in all my longings and hesitations". I have enough. I am enough. 

For more inspiration by Rilke, give yourself the gift of  "A Year With Rilke" generously posted by Lorenzo and Ruth. 

And Now You're Five

In celebration of your birthday, my darling granddaughter,
I wanted to tell you:

5 things that I love about you.

1. I love your sweet serenity which reminds me of your Mom.

2. I love your feisty, mischievous side and your bright, sunny smile that lights up your face.

Did you know that your Dad has that same kind of smile?

3. I love your funny faces. And that you always add a touch of
glamor with jewelry or "chains" as you call your necklaces.
It's a charming combination!
Did you know I love to dress up, too?

4. I love your cute sense of style that makes me laugh. 

Did you know that your great grandmother was a stylish lady, too?

5. I love how at home you are in water and have been
since you were a baby.What great times we've had together
in the pool, the river and the ocean.

 Did you know that your, grandfather and both great grandfathers
love swimming, too?

And my 5 birthday wishes for you:

1. Your smile lights up my heart. 

I wish for you a year filled with smiles.

2. Your beautiful eyes are a gift from your other grandmother.
Eyes are said to be the windows of the soul and yours is lovely. 

I wish for you a year where your soul is nourished deeply.

3. You've grown to be such a fun girl with a thirst for
adventure and an athletic spirit. 

I wish for you a year of adventures that grow your muscles strong.

4. And now you're a student, smart and excited about learning. You dived
into reading and can't get enough of books. 

I wish for you a year where your love of learning and books
 grows and grows.

5. You tell your Mom every day how to fix your hair and you try out different styles when you dress. 

I wish for you a year of growing confidence in your opinions and your willingness to share them.

Did you know that you are very much like your Mom
when she was your age?

Happy Birthday, five year old. I'm glad you were born to our family. 

Being your grandmother is a kick. I love you.

Celebrating Life Events

I already posted about running the National Breast Cancer Half Marathon with my daughter but the photos and plaque came yesterday and I am excited to share them. The plaque is my way of celebrating this significant life event. It makes me happy to see it and remember the wonderful feelings of running,  running with my daughter, and cheering for two of my nieces who walked it. What a great day and a worthy cause.



Photo at the beginning of the  Marathon and Half Marathon. There are about 10,000 participants!:

Half way through the Half Marathon there was a photographer so my daughter and I grabbed hands:

At the end of the half marathon there was a photographer so we again held hands. We were high at this point, feeling good about ourselves and glad to be running for my husband's sister, Peg. We were cheered on by so many family members who were there at the finish line:

Here's the plaque commemorating this wonderful life event. It hangs in my office with the family photos:

Loved running with you, Kelly. Loved sharing the day with you, Danielle and Marian. Thanks for all the support, dear family. Good for us!

Cuffs' Legacy

This post is in response to the word prompt "cuffs" by Velvet Verbosity at the 100 Word Challenge.

Every time she cuffs him, we cringe. She targets him. Today, she went further; grabbed his head, hit it against a locker. The ring of it resounded down the corridor loud enough to draw response. We, his classmates, stunned silent, were secretly glad as we shook that it wasn't us.

Her punishment always outdoes his infraction, whatever it was. What could a nine year old boy do to make a nun smash his head into that tall, shiny, empty, metal locker? No adult intervenes. Ever. We didn't know they should. Maybe that's the worst outcome. Except for his, of course.

The Cool New iPad

I'm writing this post on my new iPad. My iMac is a desktop so, when I travel, I obviously can't take it. But I wanted a way to get email, FB and the internet, especially for the blogosphere. With the iPad I can do all that and also carry my photos, songs as well as any of the 65,000 apps that I've downloaded. Or that my grands have downloaded since both of them have a folder on my desktop with their games.

There are many so many cool things about this iPad that I don't know where to begin. just to name a few: the keyboard is full size, The apps are amazing to a mere novice in this world of things technical, it corrects my spelling as I go along automatically or I can cancel the correction if I want to, it takes a very, very light touch to type, the screen display is 9 1/2 ", photos are large as a result and a flick of the finger moves them forward or backward, it is intuitive which is good for a non techie, it's all done by touch so my finger is my cursor, I can download and read books, and one of the apps is called "Star Walk" which displays the stars and constellations of any direction that I point the iPad and then goes deeper into space with a touch (this is unbelievably, gorgeously cool!).

Deep breath, you really wouldn't believe the number and types of apps under 20 categories. I'd be interested in swapping info on favorites if others have iPads or iPhones. My current fav is the Star Walk- total knock out! If I have access to the Internet, email, FB and my blog, why do I need a computer? I heard Steve Jobs call this a post PC product. Maybe that's what he meant. Hmmmm.

What's your favorite app?

Friends Right in The Family

I had no sisters growing up so when one of my brothers got married, his bride to be, who also had no sisters, said she was thrilled to finally have a sister. Our paths criss crossed after that; we lived far apart mostly, close together for a short time, had our children, became absorbed with all that goes with raising a family, and circled each other with rare but important connections. Then her world as she knew it fell apart and she and my brother got divorced. We lived half the country apart at that time. Sometimes, though, loss in one area frees up deeper connections in another.

It happened nine years ago when I moved back to New England from California and wanted to get to know my nieces better, reestablish contact with them, get to know them as adults. I called a gathering in Maine of my daughter and eight nieces. My husband's sister offered to come and help and I was glad. Then, something unexpected happened; three of my nieces called and asked if their mother, my sister-in-law, could be involved as well. If all three of her daughters wanted it, she was in. We had our first gathering in 2004. All nine young women and the three crones attended. We had our 7th gathering in 2010 and everyone has attended every year, except my husband's sister who died of breast cancer in 2007.

Magic and miracles have occurred, one of them is the friendship with my sister-in-law. Although, now I call her my sister and feel grateful that I can. In the process of sharing, supporting and being together, we've grown closer, become dear friends. We visit twice a year, shop together, gab about our grandchildren, travel together, have a great time together and look forward to more. She's had health challenges that worry her. But I know in my heart that whatever she'll face, we'll face together. We're friends; friends do that for each other.

Thanks for your friendship, G. I love you.

Lucky Chicken

I want to share a wonderful story. It's a true story of a lucky chicken and her new friends. It's a story of redemption, hope and survival. It's an important story right now.

The story starts with my friend, Sheila, taking her trash to a receptacle near her home on the way to a luncheon with her friend. She was dressed in a white linen dress for the occasion. As Sheila threw in her trash, she heard a noise that she couldn't identify. She alerted her friend, who also didn't know what she was hearing. "But, we're all dressed up and going to a luncheon" pleaded her friend.

Sheila, animal lover that she is, couldn't give up once she heard that faint sound. "I'm going to see what's in there" Trash receptacles in Italy are big and tall and loaded from the top. This one was full. Sheila is maybe 5'3" (160cm). Undeterred, she started taking trash out bag by bag and item by item, determined to find what was making that sound. She had to go to the bottom, her dress ruined by then, only to find a white plastic bag tied at the top with a weak sound coming from it. 

She opened it to find a small chicken of indeterminate age with its head lolling off to the side and emitting the pitiful sound.  After she got over the shock, she could see that the chicken was dying and her heart went out to the poor creature. Sheila told her friend that she wanted to take it to her house so it could die in the open looking at the sky (and so she could change her clothes).

So, home they went, where Sheila found an old dog crate to put the chicken in to protect it while it died.  To her surprise when she came home from the luncheon, Sheila found the chicken standing up on wobbly legs and not dead at all. Unsure what to feed it, Sheila went to the local hardware store and asked. She bought what they recommended and brought it home to see if the chicken would eat. It did. And it ate daily for the next four days looking stronger and healthier each day.

On the fourth day, an amazing thing happened. The chicken, now named Hattie, laid an egg. She has laid an egg every day since, much to Sheila's delight. She moved Hattie's crate into her dogs' enclosure and they've all become fast friends. 

Hattie has filled out and grown handsome rust red feathers. She struts around the yard, follows Sheila everywhere, plays with the dogs, bosses everyone and loves her new life. 

Like I said, it's a wonderful story.

Hattie

Hattie and her friends.

Bouyancy

 I saw you and became empty.

This emptiness, more beautiful than existence,

it obliterates existence, and yet when it comes,

existence thrives and creates more existence.

To praise is to praise

how one surrenders to the emptiness.

To praise the sun is to praise your own eyes.

Praise, the ocean. What we say, a little ship.

So the sea-journey goes on, and who knows where?

Just to be held by the ocean is the best luck

we could have. It is a total waking-up.

Why should we grieve that we have been sleeping?

It does not matter how long we've been unconscious.

We are groggy, but let the guilt go.

Feel the motions of tenderness

around you, the bouyancy.

Rumi




I don't know why this poem by Rumi is just right for me today, but it is. Sometimes I feel that I've been sleeping, unconscious, and then experience that total waking up. Japan's upheaval had that effect on me. Bless them all. In his compassion, Rumi counsels not guilt about our sleeping but tenderness towards ourselves. 
 Bouyancy is a gift.