On this day, every year, I think of my baby brother who turns a year older, and my mom who brought him earthside. What a special life this is, to truly enjoy a shared family-of-origin experience with a sibling.
A friend kept the kids overnight and while my husband and I did get out for a fancy dinner, I think my favorite part was going to sleep at 9:30pm and then drinking my coffee in bed the next morning, watching both the sun rise and him taking photos of it from the balcony.
Two nurses joined me at the community college today, to help me teach a skills lab. One of them has been a nurse for fifty years, most of them in our community. A bald eagle flew over me as I stopped for gasoline on my lunch break. A lady complimented my manners. A man complimented my husband’s photography. I love this town.
Tonight, I joined a book club. There will be one one main book per month, and another on the side. There will be animated chatter and talking with hands, and tiny juice glasses with wine, and gluten-free snacks, and slippers for when we remove our shoes upon entry. If tonight was a glimpse, there will be phrases like reflective journey and the science of birds and racial reconciliation and so, so much laughter. What a beautiful life I get to live.
We are learning, he and I, that our preteen daughters need simple sentences and not lectures. Eye contact, not a stern voice. Heavy silence, not an earful. It’s difficult and it’s working.
It must work, because we don’t have anything else and these girls have got to make it to eighteen years of age one way or another.
A historic hurricane slams into my old state days after a historic typhoon rages against my new one. In neither case am I directly affected, except for the matter of care — for earth that we have tried our best to destroy and disregard, for my friends in both places who are impacted, and for the strangers there who mean much to someone and to God.
Yesterday: Wow, Momma. Your hair. It’s beautiful… the grays are poppin’ out!
Today: When Momma dies, I call this ring. Put my name on it. Oooh, who has dibs on this one?