August 2010

…is what the little hens were up to a few weeks ago…

….so I got busy with some very old Laura Ashley fabric
samples and some twine and the sewing machine…

…and they seem to be prettily thwarted for the time being…

….tho’ perhaps they are plotting and planning
and only look like they are relaxing in their rocking chair?

I will be flying my coop tomorrow, taking my mom
to visit her only brother in Colorado. It is just a few days away,
but the stack of her pillboxes for the trip make it seem longer
to me somehow. Ah well, I am hoping it will be a fruitful trip
with good visits and the gathering of lots of family stories and
photos and memories (for me atleast and for my uncle, if not for
my dear mom)….and a safe trip…this will be the first time I have
ventured far with my mom since her accident. But I know it will
be worth the time and trouble. Perhaps I will even be able to
track down my mother’s ancestry a little further…we’ve only
barely traced the path beyond Kentucky in the 1800s! I am
determined to get us “across the ocean”, and (fingers
crossed) into Britain.

I shall keep you posted!

…to losing the fragile thread of joy and purpose
only hours after I had found it. It was dashed away

when I found the lifeless body of one of my “little
women”, as I have come to think of the them,
the very morning after sending out my
last post.

And I acknowledge…that the small grief opened
up the way to other griefs that have come recently…
to do with mothers and lost friendships and
disillusionment.

And I avow…to spending the past week mostly
in sadness…but sadness that was slowly lifted by
dear people who are good listeners, a few breezy,
lovely days (I know that I am trying to love what is…
but why is it so much easier to do when the temperature
isn’t 100 degrees?), cake, a porch-ful of loved ones
of an evening, the five chicks who are left and
…I suppose…grace.

And I declare…that I am picking up
the thread again…remembering the beauty
and pleasure she brought to me in her short
life, as I falteringly feel my way along…