The Gardener’s Shadow
In planning my herbs, veggies, & flowers early this spring, I found a proverb that struck me:
Here are spinach and strawberries in my garden, not theirs. Theirs would not be riddled with grass like this.
It wasn’t really a dead elephant like the grown-ups told us, I remember noticing one day at the ripe old age of maybe six. But danged if it didn’t look like one! This was a turning point. The beginning of my personal enlightenment.
Oh, and if you have your own gardening Grandparents, give them some hugs asap.
still his Eden keeps,
Perennial pleasures plants,
and wholesome harvest reaps.”
When You Come From Writers, You Write.
When my middle-little-brother-who-actually-seems-like-an-older-brother and his lovely wife had their first baby…
A New Kind of First Step
My first baby. My beautiful, widely talented, brown eyed little girl is embarking on a new chapter of life that will change her life maybe more than anything since leaning to walk. She is learning to drive.
And not just the old pickup truck in our back field or her little go cart up and down the long driveway, which were excellent precursors but obviously not the real thing; she is enrolling in actual, real life driving school. Which means that within months she will likely be seen around Oklahoma City, happily giving all of us pretend heart attacks while we secretly celebrate her growing independence.
When she learned to walk, it was such a happy time! She was absolutely joyful about it, like she knew in her wordless baby mind, “Whoa. This is a big deal.” She still enjoyed being held, carried, and cuddled, but walking was the shiz-nay. Her tiny fists could grip an index finger like no body’s business, affording her all the extra balance she needed to make it from couch to chair, etc.
Her chubby, wobbly little legs, that soft, feathery brown hair framing Mary Taylor’s face (her great-grandmother). Glossy, rosebud mouth. And those eyes.
Oh my goodness, she has always had the dreamiest, most liquid brown eyes you can imagine. She still does, and these days they are tastefully accented by some very grown up swipes of black mascara and silver eyeshadow. How I miss watching her animated eyes when she tells a story.
I know that in the future, if we get to hear from her One True Love about why he first fell for her, it will have something to do with her eyes.
Oh, back to driving… This is the summer between her Freshman and Sophomore years in high school, and around here that is just the perfect time to take driving lessons. I couldn’t be happier!!
Having long ago abandoned the idea of sternly not allowing my children to grow up, against my Dad’s strong recommendation, this is a time to celebrate! So celebrate we will.
My hope is that, in addition to staying safe every single minute of every single journey, my almost grown baby girl will make happy memories, gain confidence behind the wheel and around the city streets, and maybe drive out to see us now and then.
She may or may not want me there for her first official trip as Driver, time will tell, but I was there when she took her first step. And I can feel her belly laugh in my own belly when I remember it. And I am so thankful for every bit of growth that has brought her this far. xoxoxo
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Important Book Found in French Quarter
No? Eh bien… I am content to claim Oklahoma as home and visit Louisiana from time to time.
This isn’t the same building, but it is a New Orleans building with some elusive magnetism.
The Feast of All Saints had three big things going for it even before I swiped my debit card:
- Local author in my very favorite city
- Relatively limited circulation
- Historical fiction off the beaten path