Three Things I Know to be True

I'm keeping it simple right now.
In this whirlwind getting ready to travel
I'm down to basics- what
do I know? It's this: the pull
of family tugs harder as I get older.
The desire to be together with them
is a physical yearning. And,
I'm in awe of John who
easily organizes the most complex
of itineraries and writes the lists
that get all the last minute things
done. These three things
I know to be true.

Seems like it should be more.
I miss writing
more and reading blogs
that have become important to me.
But here I am, preparing to travel
six time zones to be with my family
and it's all I can manage.

I leave today for a month in the states and have been struck at how much time, effort, planning and energy expenditure happens before ever leaving. I hope to post photos of the high points of our stay, maybe even get the grands involved in documenting our time together. I'm eager...

Seize and Savor

Vacations these days mean time carved
with daughter and the grands
and sometimes just the grands.
Suits me now since they, too, want this.
Time will come when they won't,

so seize and savor is my motto.
Seize time with them, savor them
each time. Know that change
comes on any random day
and the chance is gone.

This is in response to Words Count with Mama Zen's prompt over at Imaginary Garden with Real Toads to write about vacations in less than 60 words. Her timing is remarkable since I leave in 7 days on vacation to join my daughter and two grands for 3 1/2 weeks (2 of those with just the grands) in Florida. Time to seize and savor.

Tobago, Last Day

Ten days alone with my grandchildren
for the first time. Their friends couldn't come,
they were disappointed, I wasn't.
On this last day together
we played in the pool, splashed
and invented games never known before.
They're ours now, silly, irreplaceable, part
of the stories we'll tell in the future.

I told them today that I can't do the dolphin kick
when I saw they can. Try this, Grandmother,
or this when they saw I till couldn't, or this. I'll show you,
I'll move your legs for you so you can feel it. Well,
you did one kick right, keep practicing, you'll get it.
It struck me that it's a gift to them to be bad at something
and they get to be the teachers. They admitted
they can't dive well and I could teach them.

We wrote poetry together and I learned
to let the poetry be about monsters when
I'd rather write about rain, and to listen better.
I wonder what their future will be, can't imagine it
really, it's theirs alone and indefinable.
I hold fear about it, about them in it,
about how to ready them, as if I could.
They're fine young people, they'll be fine adults.
That's their business, mine's to love them
and cheer them on. I do.


This is in response to Tashtoo over at dVerse Poets for Open Link Night who asks us to share our stories. This is mine this week.

A Poem by The Grands About Our Day

Our Day

Sunrise, sunset,
beautiful flowers, colorful butterflies,
the breeze soft against my skin,
the grass beneath my feet soft as cotton,
the sky is blue, the ocean seems new,
the songs of birds are noisy lullabies,
afternoon flowers scent the air.
We play together as a family.
Everybody in the world is family
and could play together.
I wish my friend was here but she can't be,
so I feel sad and say good-bye.
Let's swim!


Grandmother and the grands (ages 10 and 6 1/2)
I typed this as they dictated to me their poem about our day together in Tobago.

First Day of the New Year

I've traveled to Tobago, the sister Island to Trinidad, to spend ten days with my Honey and the grands to give my daughter and her husband a rare break from parenting. We're staying in a lovely house with a pool and next to a beach.

It's 4:00 in the afternoon, the day is sunny and fine with a breeze off the sea. Our house sits on a promontory of land that juts into the Caribbean and feels like the end of the world since no other houses are within sight. My Honey is swimming in the pool overlooking the beach with the grands and their friend. I sit in the blue Adirondack chair with my feet on the brick colored tiles still warm from the sun that is just leaving this section of deck. Sounds of Marco.....Polo, Marco.....Polo fill the air, broken by squeals as one or another is caught or becomes the fish out of water and is caught. My Honey is laughing: "You went right under me and I didn't even know it!" The child culprit is thrilled. The wind feels soft against my skin.

Last night we had a little ceremony with the kids to mark the New Year. They lit some fireworks that flew up and made a loud crack at the top of their flight. We had sparkling peach drink to welcome 2013 and talked of what we want to do in the coming year. My six year old granddaughter immediately said: "I want to make a potholder with my new loom." I smiled at the concrete nature of her goal. My ten year old grandson wants to make a bomb. His friend was impressed and murmured assent to this worthy goal adding it should be purple. I only raised a daughter so this is new territory for me but will pursue it later to understand more.

My granddaughter comes to me to beg me to come swimming and since she's the only girl in this group I comply although the wind is picking up enough to keep the swim short. One of the boys is on the autistic spectrum and circles the pool with a smile but not venturing in. Soon he starts to dig in the dirt around a palm tree and seems content. The others call to him but accept his need to be on his own while in their orbit. Sharks and minnows is the next game called, rules explained and new strategies devised with new squeals engendered. Is there any sound more delightful or sight more instructive than children throwing themselves into a game wholeheartedly?

The sun is down now, setting early at 6:00 on this island close to the equator. Even as the days lengthen, sunset is only one half hour later in this land of 12 hour days and nights. The children find quieter games to play and I come back to my writing to post my first blog entry for the new year. Even as my heart feels full I acknowledge the niggling need around the edges of the present to set my own goals based on my heart's reassessment of where I am and where I wish to go. The stirrings are there, the time is right, the year is new.

Blessings of growth, discovery and love be yours in this New Year.

How a Woman Living in Italy Lands in the Storm of the Century in the States

It was just a two week vacation with my Honey to see family and friends in the states ending with my niece's wedding in Ohio. Our departure date, though, coincided with hurricane Sandy, which morphed into superstorm Sandy, smashing the east coast, including our port of exit, Boston. Which means that I'm writing this from an airport hotel in Columbus, Ohio after our flights were cancelled and rescheduled for two days from now providing Boston's Logan Airport is up and running by then. Our flights were among about 11,000 flights that were cancelled. Do you know how many other travelers were attempting to change to alternate routes to miss the 1,000 mile wide storm? Too many, as it turns out.

All other family members made it out (most driving) so I have a stretch of two days to catch up with all the things I've neglected while devoting myself whole- heartedly to visiting. I want to figure out a way to blog and travel/visit at the same time. I miss my blogosphere friends when I'm gone. The TV coverage of the storm is enough to scare the wits out of any watcher that has family or friends in harm's way. Columbus is on the outer edge of this massive storm and still we have rain, cold, winds and emergency contingencies at the ready, but it's the population dense east coast that is feeling the brunt of it. Heart- felt prayers to them.

My Honey started with a cold last night and felt it full- fledged today so he's in bed and I'm out doing email, facebook, blogging, reading, organizing my vacation photos and using the fitness center since I can't go outdoors. With no distractions, it's rather enjoyable. Another advantage of retirement- the ability to roll with what is. I've even played Words-With-Friends real time with my daughter and a friend, got myself caught up with DragonVale as well and made myself some new (young) friends along the way to share DV gems and strategies with. What a fun game with ever- evolving features to keep loyalists like me happy.

Fall in New England, celebrating my father's 96th birthday, seeing friends from where I used to live in Maine, touching base and catching up with old, dear friends, conducting our 9th annual gathering of the women in my family, alone time (four days!) for the first time in ten years to talk with my daughter, and attending my youngest brother's youngest daughter's wedding stand as high points of the trip up to this latest experience of nature's power shared by many millions of my Country people. It's been a rich vacation.

Snippets

My grandson, as you know, is visiting me and my Honey here in Italy for a month. He's far from his home in the rain forest of Trinidad for the first time and is gobbling up this slice of life in our little corner of the world. Here are some snippets of his time so far.

He's learned some new games, like Sequence, that all of us enjoy:

and old ones that he's become better at, like Rummy Kub:

and introduced some new games to us, like Bakugan, Battle Brawlers, that go from this:

to this, thanks to magnets in the cards and clever design:

He, outside with our neighbors, watched the European Football (soccer) semis and finals wherein Italy beat Germany in the semis but lost to Spain in the finals. His t-shirt says Italia, much to our neighbor's delight:

He's a gamer and has higher speed access here than at home, much to his delight:

But this gamer also likes tea parties, much to his grandmother's delight. Our summer variation serves ice tea, home brewed on our balcony, rather than hot:

The days have been hot and dry so the beach nearby offers a welcome respite, to relax:

or to discharge some sheer boy exuberance:

Up to now, encouraged by my grandson, activities have been mostly close to home. Good way to start.