November 26, 2015

When The Walls Come Down


I like this collage I made a few years back so much that I'm recycling it again.

This year, as always, I am grateful for many things but I think the thing at the tippy-top is my mom who will be 94 in January. As some of you know, for the last 3 years she has lived close-by, instead of almost 500 miles away. This of course has brought responsibility into my life but it has also brought a wonderful intimacy with her that was hard to have for so many years because I was either being a ratty teenager, or because of the long distance between us, or because I was sleep deprived and busy having my own family. Or because when we saw each other it was frequently at a large family gathering and our relationship got diluted.

Or maybe because we just didn't quite know how to do it.

I guess what I want to say it that I am grateful for our relationship. Sometimes I see us as this ball of yarn where, like an onion, the layers are slowly unraveling and being made into something anew- as our intimacy unfolds and we reach to know and love each other, even more.

But at the same time we are a ball of yarn that is winding larger and firmer- from the life experience that we are sharing about aging, and vulnerability and what it is to be a human being.

As I write this brings tears to my eyes.

Many years ago I made up a simple little grace to say at dinner with Mr- Fix-It and the kids that better represented what I personally wanted to say each night then other prayers that I've heard.

It goes like this:

Let us be thankful for all that we have.

For our health

And our home

But especially, for each other.

Each day is a blessing.

Amen


Happy Thanksgiving, dear readers of  mine.

xo,
Louise