reflections on Mother's Day

On Friday I purchased flowers for my mother for Mother's Day, and as I was driving home from the store I was thinking about the lilac bush that one of my sons gave me 4 years ago for Mother's Day. It continues to thrive outside my back window, and it gives me joy every time I look at it. I wonder if he knew when he bought the tree how many smiles it would bring to my face, how many times I would look out my window and feel loved. I think back to all the hand-made Mother's Day cards I received from my children when they were young, and I realize that those cards are permanent, tangible signs of their love that I can revisit over and over just like the lilac bush. They are the proof that we existed and that we did, and still do, love each other so very much. My sons are grown now and they have busy lives, but if they should forget to call or stop by tomorrow, I will look to these reminders as proof that they did, and still do, love me very much.

snapshots

the breeze drifting lazily through my window and dancing across my skin...
ice cream chin-drips on a three-year-old...
crisp, fall apples hanging heavily from sagging branches...
tangy salt air and waves splashing against rock...
fragrant lilac blossoms outside an open window...
sitting by the fire as snow falls silently from a gray sky...
the smile of the one I was always meant to love...

the circus

I took my two grandchildren, ages 5 and 3, to the circus recently and while we were driving there my granddaughter said, "Let's play eye-spy-with-my-little-eye, Grammy." I told her that would be fun, and she took her turn first. After we had guessed what her little eye was spying, it was my grandson's turn. He said, "I py sompin...bwoo," then he immediately yelled out the thing he was thinking of and went, "Yesss!" My granddaughter patiently explained to him that he wasn't supposed to guess when it was his turn; he was supposed to let us guess. So he said, "Okay," and she had her turn and then it was his turn again. Once again he said, "I py sompin...bwoo," and yelled out the item and a "Yesss!" My slightly less patient granddaughter tried once again to explain the process to him, but after another round of the same she decided we should something "funner." From a grammy's perspective, it doesn't get any funner than this!