"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"
- Barbara Bush, 3/18/03
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posted 15 May 08 & filed under busy bee, familia!
i just woke up from a beautiful dream. so sweet and longed for, but still a surprise, with a mix of real and not real, like any good dream should have.
in a few hours, i’m going with my mom to baltimore for her citizenship test and interview.
i’m finally putting together my notes from my fiber class, and i thought maybe i’ll do two little videos of how i used the drum carder and the combs. sound fun?
after years and years of daydreaming and falling asleep paging through seed catalogs and gardening books, i’m finally making my own garden. i bought plants at maryland sheep & wool – dye plants too! – and got a bunch more yesterday from a little old general store down the street. i tried to grow some veggies from seedlings but i sadly killed them all. ! there’s two leeks or so that survived, that’s all. anyhow, pics to come.
finished two languishing knits, and i’m happy with them, but i gotta take proper pics there too. my mom and my oldest sister are in the middle of knitting projects too, so some nights we sit around the kitchen table (ok, island) and watch tv and chat while we clickity-clack away. very nice.
my dad is holding steady. the doctors gave him a couple of weeks over a month ago. he’s so thin, it’s a hurtful surprise to see it, remember it, every morning when i go to give him a kiss hello. he squeezes my hand, most of the time, to communicate, but yesterday i got a handful of words, and it was a combination of happiness and sadness – happy to hear him, of course, but so sad to realize all the more how he’s still here, just trapped in a brain and body that is falling apart around him. it’s just so insane.
i think the older i get, the more i realize how precious love is. and i don’t mean this just about my dad, though of course he’s a big part, but also about people you meet, along the way, that you love. i mean, it sounds so hokey, but i kinda shudder to think how carelessly i treated love when i was younger. like i thought it just grew on trees, no biggie, when in reality, you have to handle love, and those you love, with so much care and attention. they’re precious! they’re one in a million! if not more like one in a billion. now, with losses of love around me, imminent or done, only now do i get it.
maybe this is the part about growing up that makes one slow down. i remember always being disappointed in anne (of green gables, of course ;) ) when she grew up – she got so less spunky and fun, and instead was all wise and matronly. i’ve always been a fast talker, walker, do-er, and i like that about me. but maybe anne slowed down because partially because she learned about loss and how easily it happens, about how fragile we all are in our lives, and so by slowing down, you’re more careful, of yourselves, of those around you.. hm. i don’t know if i want to learn this then. i like moving around with the friskiness of a kid, babbling away at a million hours a minutes, laughing and crying within the space of ten minutes. it’s a crazy hectic way to live, but that’s how i’ve always been.
but again, it probably doesn’t have to be one extreme or the other, right? silly andrea. !
off to putter around my plants, take some pics, and get dressed for baltimore ~ ~ hope each one of you have a good thursday ~
p.s. two songs in my head this morning: violent femme’s good feeling and these days by nico.
good luck, Mrs. H.
i love this string of thoughts, Andrea, and the image of you and your mom and your big sis knitting away together.
~ meowgirl
I am so heartbroken to read about your dad. My thoughts are prayers are truly with you right now, Andrea. I’ve been there, too, with my grandpa. I remember seeing him lying in bed and realizing that it was the last time I would see him. It was very sad, but also a special moment between my grandpa and me. Death is such a difficult thing for us to go through with our loved ones, but it is a part of living, too. Please let me know if you need anything at all.
Good to hear from you. I’m just now catching up on my blog reading. I’ve been behind. I’ve thinking about you lately :)
~ Moni
my thought are with you and your father and family. your reflections about love are so very true and a good reminder to me today to cherish all that we love.
~ mamie
Oh Andrea, I wish I could give you a hug in person. What you said about love and growing up is true. I’ve experienced it myself. And, dealing with the loss of a loved one also affects this change in thought and outlook. Thinking about you and your family. Take care.
~ Nonnahs
Thank you for this slow, quiet, reflective post. Be well; take care.
thank you for sharing this moving post—i am so sorry about your dad, and i really admire your courage. you and your family are in my thoughts.
~ lalitha