By the way...

Stepping Over

For weeks now, it has felt as if I had one foot in
what has been 

for these past two and a half years 
and another foot in
what is next,

whatever that turns out to be.

Official, regularly scheduled EmmyCare is over 

and just plain Emmy and PapaRob times  with our
Grand-Boys are yet to be.


With a freer schedule,
it also means more together-time for
Rob and Sarah,
including travelling together to Rob's work locales
whenever possible.

Caleb arrives tomorrow for three weeks,

so who knows what all we'll get into as we continue

to have our play-days together.

And then there's Sarah,
just hanging out in the moments of each and every day,
waiting to see what surprises await and what creative maneuvering
she and Rob can come up with to make it through
yet another season of life, when, as always, there are no rules
and there is no instruction book.

I continue to believe it is our birthright 
to see and choose abundance, at every turn.

Stay tuned...

Our Technicolor Thursday!

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Wednesday FUN

Sand-Paper Angels

Beach Fun

Papa Sawyer Tickle Time

Sprinkler Time

Bahama Buck's

 Brrrrrrrrrrrrr

Tuesday at LaDiosa

with heARTy friends!

Monday with Aunt Marcella

 All the way from Fairbanks, Alaska for a Shogun lunch,

where he created an erupting volcano in her honor! 

Photos by Sawyer

 Red-Breasted Egg-Sucker

Happy Mama

Aw, Shucks!

Sawyer loved the shucking and pleaded for "Cahn...cahn" 

until it was finally ready to eat.

He took a couple of bites, and then he realized,

"Oh, that's 'cahn'."

Fun & Games

Memorial Day Eve Cook-Out with the Kids

Photo by Sawyer

Another night at the theatre...

Look!

Christ in the Arts

Last night I witnessed a beautiful performance

by this local liturgical dance troupe and was touched 
most of all by the words of the prayer they sang 
at the close of the program.

For from Him

and through Him

and to Him are all things

Lord be in us, and see in us

a willingness to wait

To have from you

what comes through you

And brings to you the praise.

PS

So, as Emily Litella would say,

"Never mind."

Looks like Sawyer will be here next Wed/Thurs after all.

It seems Trinity closes the week before their 

summer session starts in June, 

so there you go.

Lesson 18:

Knowing is highly over-rated.


Why do I keep forgetting that? 
You'd think by now it would be so very obvious! 

Remember her?

The Gift of Time

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Footnotes, Chapter 17

Best Laid Plans   

The last official chapter of Footnotes was written almost two years ago, when
Sawyer was eight months old, and I was in full-time EmmyCare mode. Since
that time, our book got published and has been enjoyed by lots of folks who
can identify with so many of the lessons Sawyer taught me. How interesting
then that another lesson, probably the one I've needed most, would appear
yesterday on the last day of my official EmmyCaring.


I have known for weeks now that as of summer, Sawyer would become a
full-timer at Trinity Daycare, an excellent childcare center that was lovingly
selected for him by his parents. He has been gradually easing over into
TrinityCare for the past year, so we've both had time to get used to this very
natural and healthy transition...for him and for me. Sawyer needs little people
to play with and new teachers in his life, and Emmy needs to acknowledge her
desires and limitations at this time in hers. It all made perfect sense, and there
you have it!


So, why in the world would finding out a week early that yesterday was our
last EmmyCare day have such a profound effect on me? I mean it's not like
anyone is moving away or that I'll never see him again. In fact, I expect our
relationship to be better than ever as we assume our very natural connection
as grandmother and grandson, without "daycare" in the mix. So, what's the
big deal? Why the tears...make that sobbing? Why, when I see his little bed
and his cups and his band-aid stuck on the side of the bathtub, does my heart
flip over?


LOVE! Yep...that's it! Genuine, heart-felt, you-don't-have-to-do-a-thing LOVE
...the very love we felt for each other during Sawyer's earliest baby days. Sure,
he's a big boy now and at two, he enjoys daring me to follow through on my
limit setting. Sure, he wants my undivided attention as he's on stage to show me
what he's doing every minute of the day. Sure, he requires lots of physical
movements I would not be making on my own if he weren't in the picture...ouch!
And, by the time he leaves each day, I am exhausted and just want to sit quietly
and zone out on television.


But love keeps showing up, right in the middle of all of this...just like it always 
has. And it showed up in the biggest of ways yesterday when his lesson was 
simply this:

Planning is not required for LOVE to show up.

When I thought next week was our "last week", I knew I'd make our "last day"
extra-special in some way...not sure what...but, knowing me, I would have
expended effort and emotion to "honor" our "last day"...and to get some kind of
closure...to make some kind of a "Saramony" out of it, perhaps.  AND, what I
know from vast experience is that I then would have those nasty little buggers
that follow closely on the heals of planning--EXPECTATIONS!  


Now, just imagine with me the unlimited opportunities for resentment and disappointment that would be waiting in the wings on "our special day".  
For one thing, it would be my picture of "our special day", and Sawyer wouldn't 
have a clue that he would need to respond and perform according to that 
picture in order for it to be "special". So, he'd just be Sawyer, for better or 
for worse. Perhaps it would have worked out just fine...who knows?


But here's what happened because Emmy didn't know: Our real "last day" was
totally unplanned, the way we usually do it...just doing what shows up. And we
did. (See yesterday's blog for the details) It could not have been any better if I'd
planned it. And, there were absolutely no expectations that it be anything other
than what it was. Wow! What a way to live!


So, thanks Sawyer, my forever wise little tutor (no pun intended) for arranging
things the way you do so that I keep remembering what's real. There's so much
more room for LOVE to show up when I get out of the way.

Maybe it's easier this way...

I spent this Sawyer Thursday like most all the others, 

doing some of his favorite things with him:

laundry

emptying trash

making the beds

playing outside with bubbles

having a bed party and watching Oomi Zoomi

reading Farm Animals and drinking chocolate milk

gathering up Lamby and Blanky,

pushing the "whoosh" and the "music", and

getting tucked in all tight and cozy for his naptime

singing "Feed the ducks...feed the ducks...
we shall feed the ducks" on the way to the bank
then heading to DOLLAR TREE for a Hangy Bids balloon

finding no such balloon, but buying

decorations for the front door and the Summer Tree,

a Micky/Pluto coloring book, a blue bubble wand,
and orange crackers

making a balloon-stop at CVS

where he drove the car and selected a shiny Elmo

back home for playtime and tree/door decorating...beautiful!

 The Summer Tree

We never found that Hangy Bids (Angry Birds) balloon,

but we decided this looked like a Hangy Piwit

and would definitely do!

Then, when Mom came to pick him up, 
she said she guessed this was Sawyer's last day at Emmy's,

since he will be starting full-time at Trinity after Memorial Day.

GULP!

I told her I was thinking I had another week of 
Wed/Thurs Sawyer-keeping days.

And it was then that I realized

today was our last official Sawyer-Emmy day...

and it had been

(well)
absolutely perfect!

(No plan needed...)


Looks like Sawyer presented me with another 
much-needed Footnotes lesson,
and, as always, just in time.

I've cried a bucket, AND it's all good!! 
More to follow, I am sure.

May Days

 GG comes for a visit...

 Cherry Berry Chillers!

Brrrrrrrrr

Playing "Hangy Bids"

Indeed!

Just Paul

Thanks, Marilyn, for this great story:

A Michigan woman and her family were vacationing

in a small New England town where Paul Newman

and his family often visited.

One morning, the woman got up early to take a long walk.

After a brisk five-mile hike, she decided to treat herself

to a double-dip chocolate ice cream cone.

She hopped in the car, drove to the center of the village

and went straight to the combination bakery/ice cream parlor.

There was only one other patron in the store:
Paul Newman, sitting at the counter

having a doughnut and coffee.

The woman's heart skipped a beat as her eyes

made contact with those famous baby-blue eyes.

The actor nodded graciously

and the star struck woman smiled demurely.

Pull yourself together! She chides herself.

You're a happily married woman with three children; 

you're forty-five years old, not a teenager!

The clerk filled her order and she took the double-dip

chocolate ice cream cone in one hand and her change in the other.

Then she went out the door, avoiding even a glance in

Paul Newman's direction.

When she reached her car, she realized

that she had a handful of change but her other hand was empty.

Where's my ice cream cone? Did I leave it in the store?

Back into the shop she went, expecting to see the cone

still in the clerk's hand or in a holder on the counter or something!

No ice cream cone was in sight.

With that, she happened to look over at Paul Newman.
His face broke into his familiar, warm, friendly grin

and he said to the woman,

"You put it in your purse."

A good old fashioned love story

1995

Just watched it again on Netflix, nearly 20 years later,

and it was like a whole new movie for me.

I recommend it.

And be sure to watch the Special Feature about the making of the movie,

all of which is done in retrospect.

Beautiful! 

Flower Ceremony at Church

Oh, Give Us Pleasure in the the Flowers Today

by Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;

and give us not to think so far away as the uncertain harvest:

keep us here all simply in the springing of the year.

For this is love and nothing else is love, 

the which it is reserved for God above to sanctify 

to what far ends he will,

but which it only needs that we fulfill. 

The significance of the flower communion is that as no two flowers are alike, 

so no two people are alike, yet each has a contribution to make. 

Together the different flowers form a beautiful bouquet.

By exchanging flowers, 

we show our willingness to walk together in our search for truth, 

disregarding all that might divide us. 

Each person takes home a flower brought by someone else - 

thus symbolizing our shared celebration in community.

This unique ritual was first developed in the nation 

of Czechoslovakia by Norbert Capek.  

In a nation where many of the converts to Unitarianism

came from a wide range of Jewish and Christian backgrounds, 

the need to provide some sort of ceremony 

that would unify the membershipbecame apparent. 

Rather than draw on rituals related to the previous affiliations of 

Unitarian members, Capek decided to incorporate something

of nature into a rite that could involve everyone who wished to participate,

while still leaving room for some individual interpretations 

of the symbolism behind the ritual.