Family Matters...
A lot.
Travelin’, travelin’, travelin...
Worth every mile
Just to catch the smile
Of a gran’pa watching his daughter’s daughter shine.
“No, Gra’Moose, HE does the talking; we just laugh,” says Miss D at 3.5 years. She’s got us down. She knows I like my toast as hard as a brick and that turquoise is my favorite color.
She knows that her Auntie Sid is the best reader of our bunch, and asks her regularly to read every book she’s ever received - especially the ones her auntie has written!
She knows Uncle Mr. Grady Pants is silly, but not as silly as Gran’Pun who is also "goofy."
Mostly, she knows she is loved and safe and going to be kept safe by the larger net of family that extends through many states and involves many hearts beating out a steady rhythm of hope and earnest effort to make things better for children in a world where wicked ways proliferate faster than winter rye under heaps of manure.
She also knows how to pretend and play and put on performances.
Our daughter Mosa invited us to attend one of her MOTH parties Saturday night. The only rules are that the story has to be about you, and that you tell it without notes. You may not read it. The theme was Dark and Light / Beginnings and Endings. She told a story about beginnings and endings that wowed us all. Younger daughter Megan told a story of moving from Chicago to the East Bay that illustrated persevernce and spunk. My husband told a story about the first time he celebrated Christmas with any heart in it - when he bought a tree for my grieving Grandmother Maxwell shortly after her husband died. I was in tears remembering his generosity of spirit and courage to overcome what had been a life-long hatred of all things related to Christmas.
I told a story that is only skin deep... about my freckled dark/light skin and my complex about my complexion. More or less, it's the blog I wrote for December 9, but telling it live is a very different experience! Well... here’s the link:
Others (nineteen of us in all) told funny, poignant, purposeful if sometimes meandering stories. Can’t think of a better way to ring in the New Year than through story-telling.
Barry Lopez observed, “Sometimes people need a good story more than we need food.”
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