all in a weekend
time present. slow. easy
they shine
our children
free to be from the inside out
observing
as my heart dances with delight, gratitude
friendships near and far
so easy just to be
late night talks over wine, laughter rolling on
time flowing freely
Yesterday, I had an impromptu day to myself way down in the big city, the Emerald City. And the rain-soaked I5, I suppose was my yellow brick road to find a little bit of myself that I'd been missing the last few weeks. My girl was to come with me and visit with a dear pal of hers but a case of pink-eye kept her home. Now of course I would have loved the company but getting to hit the open road myself, well I loved the opportunity to keep company with myself for just a little while. Time to reflect peacefully, quietly, calmly alone on the week past, the year past, more than that even.
The time to look inside and look out to let my mind meander quietly as I drive on down the road listening to my favorite CD of late-this was needed I realize. The premise for the drive, well I was meeting my book club gang for our annual holiday celebration. We meet each year to celebrate the holidays and New Year. We eat and toast at some fun Seattle eatery. Yesterday, we met for brunch, caught up on our daily lives, toasted, broke bread and exchanged a few lovely gifts with one another. I don't make many of the bookclub meetings anymore living 90 miles North nor are there many of the monthly ones of days past but we are still a bookclub. We've been together for nearly 14 years as I figure it. Babies and businesses have been born among us, marriages made, homes restored, relationships blossomed, new artistic journeys begun.
I was planning to head back home in the later afternoon but remember that part about meandering. Well, I let myself do it, I lifted any restrictions I may have placed on myself to leave by this time or that and took my dear Mac guru pal up on her offer to visit the Apple Store, a place I'd never yet been. While I have subsided for now the urge to buy a new camera, I am for very practical purposes studying the possibility of buying a new computer and crossing the bridge from PCland to the Apple Orchards of Macdom. I'll say one thing, you'd never know there was an economic downturn entering this store. It was packed, buzzing, humming. And these machines well they are downright sexy. I know this may sound so odd, describing a computer as sexy but I love good design and dang man these are gorgeous. And fast. And there's just so much I love about Macs--always have just never bought one before. So here I am dreaming, scheming, budgeting. I didn't bring home anything new yesterday as I do need a little time to really feel the commitment I may be about to make.
And then it got dark and rainy and well I headed for the highway, called the Papa to let him know and he said "Stay, you need this, be with your girl-friends. Have fun and come home in the morning" And so I did, and said a big thank-you. I'm not a huge fan of driving in the dark and torrential rains. Plus, my girl frankly needed some special time with her Papa so it worked out just fine for me to stay away just a little longer. So, I said Yes. Yes, I turned around headed back to my friend's house and stayed the night. The time to talk and uncover some of those meandering thoughts and to hear of hers. Quiet time for the Mama. Unplanned, impromptu and much needed. This day a gift and a reminder to keep stepping out, outside of myself and in.
Part of this weekend was spent on a small island just south of where we live. We had a sleepover, 2 mamas, two very funny, very energetic 5 year old girls and one very sweet 3 1/2 month old boy. Movie, popcorn, bathtime for the girls, wine, photoshop lessons and hours of visiting for us mamas. My friend and I ride on a parallel plane or at least it feels that way. We are in sync. In our friendship, our parenting, our sister-hood, in our relationships at home and oh yes an obsession with learning the ins and outs of photoshop. Our girls too are in sync, great pals at 5.
We learn through eachother as mothers, as friends, as sisters. We are learning from our children now and from the memories of ourselves as children growing up then with our own mothers. We share what we recognize and discover, our a-ha moments, walking the path together to become better mothers to our children each day. We remind ourselves to breathe in and nourish ourselves to know ourselves as the good mothers we are and want to be. We remind ourselves to practice what we teach or daughters.
My girl and I left their home and drove through the county. The clouds gray and stormy with streams of bright sunlight and blue peaking through. The fields wet from rains upon rains yet shimmering with the light that creeps through. Still. Calm. Beautiful. My girl and I listening to sweet music on the drive home. Quiet. Peaceful. Nourished.
I came home and called my friend. The depth of a friendship so in sync is one for which I am deeply grateful. A friendship where we learn out loud together, feel safe to share and make mistakes and celebrate the small triumphs, where our children are right at home with the other. Yes a friendship rich and vast and layered.
As I think about our journeys in motherhood, I think about our own mothers and grandmothers before us.
To our mothers and grandmothers whose stories are part of our journey. To who they continue to become in themselves and within us. To ourselves and who we become in our journeys. To our children who teach us each day, right in the moment, patiently as we learn. And to who they so beautifully become in their own learning. For the journeys we take together, I am grateful.
Here is my dear sister-friend Puck spinning a little spin on her way out of town. I love the hoop. For me, this circle of energy is a reminder to feel my rhythm, be myself, go with the flow, let go and in all of that be light and ride.
And here's my little one finding her own sweet rhythm before school. She was pure joy practicing a little Yoga in the kitchen while I was making breakfast. Watching her, learning from her in her own natural, free flowing presence is my daily teaching for which I am very grateful.
Puck, my sister-friend turned us on to these great Yoga Cards for kids awhile back. While we didn't find the same ones she shared with us, we found this great deck called "Yoga Pretzels". We already have and love the book called "My Daddy is a Pretzel" so my girl was especially excited to get her hands on the beautiful cards from this deck illustrated by the same artist.
So there is a little glimpse into some of the sweet moments around here in the past day or two. Here's to your sweet moments too.
I love fall! I know I write this well..alot but I guess I'm noticing just how much I love this season by the fact that I seem to be taking pictures of every tree, every falling leaf around me. And in this love affair with fall, I am noticing so closely the cycle of this season. Colors turning and bursting forth color, leaves are falling... evidence of the cycling on of this season.
Leaves dance gracefully in a free fall leaving drops of color in our path. How powerful and graceful are these trees that stand before us. Pure beauty revealed in the cycle of seasons evolving year after year. The seasons give us the opportunity to notice life in the details. To see the leaves through the trees, the trees through the forest and for the chance to soak in the big picture and the detail sometimes at once.
This weekend my sweet soul-sister came to town. I am blessed to have some amazing women friends in my life and this friend who I call Puck is my kindred spirit. We met the day after I moved to the big city South of here 15 years ago and the day I met her I knew she was my sister. Fifteen years filled with so many stories that we love to tell again and again. We spend a weekend together like this every few months. We walk and stomp the earth together and talk and talk some more and eat some bit of yummy decadence like yesterday in the form chicken enchiladas and chicken tostadas. We toast with good beer and wine and ramble on stories from our lives then and now. We sometimes even do a little shopping. More on that soon. As we walk together, we notice the leaves through the trees at every turn.
And on this Sunday, we had girls day, my sister-friend, my girl and me. Puck is like an auntie to my girl, deep down connected. We were pregnant she and I at the same time and so she got to know my sweet baby way early own. And though our little ones live miles apart, I know they are kindred spirits as are we.
We ate bagels and then walked, and let the day be guided by my girl. We headed home and played with my girl's new hand-me downed paper doll collection. We colored together for hours making and designing our own clothes for these groovy paper dolls. Talking and sharing together lost in time. Then my girl and her auntie did some yoga together. So beautiful to see my girl light up in each pose, feeling strong, proud and capable as she breathed in deep. And me feeling so grateful that Puck my kindred spirit is her kindred spirit too, deep down connected.
I am feeling nourished and so grateful for this day, this weekend, nourished by the love, power and deep down connection shared with my dear sister friend and my girl. And grateful to the Papas and little ones in our families for giving us this time together.
I love Saturday mornings especially this time of year. Frosty mornings mean pajamas and sweaters and lazing around at least for a little while. This particular Saturday though we were treated to a visit by dear friends from the city down South of here. The Mama is a kindred spirit, a sister friend through and through and her girl, a dear pal of my girl's since they were a wee two. Us Mamas, were given a morning all to ourselves while the Papa in our house stayed home with the girls. Our girls played for hours while Papa puttered and got things done he needed.
And we Mamas walked and talked for hours. We meandered the paths of parenting and relationships, daydreaming and delighting in planning for the time she and her girl will move back to our town. Though we are actually nearly 20 years apart, I feel I've known her all my life. We just get each other and being together is always easy, seamless, effortless. I learn and get inspired with each visit I hope the same is true for her. We laugh, we talk in tangents always circling back to our center.
So on this day, we walked by intuition following our path to the Saturday market in search of some yummy cheeses, good bread, and crisp, tart apples. And in the fine name of decadence, we stopped for coffee (well that was for me) and a bottle of wine for our various evenings. We each had painted our own scene for those evenings to come sharing wine and tasty eats with friends.
Fall inspires me to nestle in and gather with my family and dear friends and share in the warmth of food at our table. And we did on this Saturday night as good neighborhood friends came by. More play for our girl and good talking for all of us. I made a savory Pumpkin Soup with fresh sugar-pie pumpkins and our friends brought Fish Tostadas that were unbelievable. And in effort to bring this topic back to center, we started things off with the apples, wine and cheese from our earlier venture that day.
This delicious Saturday led into a fairly slow Sunday. We visited a friend at work in her new found art environs. She is learning to weld and I might add learning quickly making art from scrap metal, plasma cutting house numbers, herons, leaves and trees. My girl got to don a welding hood and watch as my friend's mentor fabricated a piece of a gate. I wished I had my camera but alas another photo series for my mind's inspiration bank, the raw roughness, rust, and pure grit of metal sends me up and over--yep metal excites me. After a short while, my girl and I ventured onward in our day and together with friends went to the Dream Science Circus. More on that in another post. We came home and stretched out the two of us, cozied under blankets and snuggled. Both feeling stretched and tired from a big weekend.
For a delicious, soul-nourishing weekend spent with dear family and friends, for the variation of colors all around, the practical, simple, magnificent beauty everywhere. I am grateful.
Today: A sweet, summer afternoon spent with my family and good friends. Hearing splashes and laughter. Joy. Being free.
This time by the lake today brought me back to the many summers I spent with my family on Long Lake in Harrison, Maine. Slow summer days. Living for the most part in our bathing suits. Walking to town for penny candy, shoestring red licorice to be exact and yes it really cost a penny, stopping at the Post Office to check for mail, going to the library, coming home to whip up our idea of a gourmet lunch, ah the wonders of dare I say bologna. Sitting on our friends dock our legs dangling in the water. Sharing stories. Playing Water Baseball, Boat rides a dusk, Sailing. Feeling free all summer long. Always making sure on these summer days we were never far from the lake.
For being at this lake today with my girl and watching her joy, for remembering my summers by Long Lake, for the sweet time with my family together in summer then and now, for the slowness, for all the stories collected from those days, for the friends from that time who I still hold dear, I am grateful.
This was one of those rich and delicious weekends that let's face it started Thursday. Amidst the rain and mist, our dear dear friends from Maui made a visit. A year since we'd seen them last, her kids have grown so beautifully. My girl was so excited to see her girls. Once she shed her shyness they were off to play for hours. We made a beautiful dinner from that night's CSA pickup. Baked Tofu(not in the CSA box), fresh greens, roasted potatoes. Simple and Delicious. No pIctures, we ate it up fast.
We stayed up late talking; catching up in tangents. One conversation leads to another and probably we never wrapped up any particular topic. Like no time had ever passed. Just being together talking about her life, my life, our children, partners. Fluid.
When she arrived, she gave me a beautiful amber and silver charm and said "wear this, amber is for transition.." Transition I thought? Hmmmmm. Ah yes, transition.
Friday marked the last day of preschool for my girl. Her last day at this wonderful school where she'd been for almost three years. Time Files. Fast. But I must remind myself too to slow down. There is no rushing this sweetness of childhood of my exerience in being a Mama to this girl.
In all of this transition, my exercise is to stop. Breathe. Take it in. These moments. Listen. Go slow. I remind myself alot because I need to.
I had one of those days where I was way to much inside my head cluttered with one thought or the next. And part of me calling out reminding myself to Stop. Breathe. Notice.
So no pictures of the amber I will wear for transition but I looked at my lupine, leaves still green, flowers turned to seed ready for a jar or to fall on their own to the ground.The late afternoon sun peaks through the leaves.
Ah yes transition.
For the sunshine, for my girl and hearing her laughter,for slowly coming out of a Monday fog, for my dear friends and a great weekend, I am grateful.
I am just back from a Blessingway ceremony for my dear friend who with her family have just brought home their beautiful baby boy. Each one of us as part of this sacred ceremony shared a blessing for this beautiful baby and his wonderful family.
I was amazed as I watched this sweet new life staring so intently at his mama with his big beautiful eyes, how tiny yet how strong he his. He knows right where he is next to her heart, her love, her warmth. He knows right where he is in the heart of his beautiful family. How wonderful their paths have crossed as his mama so beautifully said. How grateful we all are.
For being part of such a strong circle of women tonight honoring this most amazing mother; for my own journey as a mama, and for my girl most of all, who teaches me everyday to slow down, to listen, to breathe, to let go even just a little, for the love and joy in our family...for this family, our dear friends growing so beautifuly, healthfully, lovingly, peacefully. For the joy in our hearts, I am so grateful.
