Email Exchange With A Sister (aka New Home Owner), June 16, 2011

----- ORIGINAL Message ----
From: Older Sister
To: Younger Sister (still glowing from purchase of new home)
Sent: Thu, June 16, 2011 8:00 PM
Subject: NEED YOUR ADDRESS

(no content in body of email)

From: Younger Sister
To:Older Sister
Sent: Thu, June 16, 2011 8:50 PM
Subject: Re: need your address

Now? I just bought a new house but we haven't moved in yet.

Are you not aware? This is the biggest buzz-kill in the world to send my current address when all I want to type to you is my NEW, NEW, NEW address.

Fine. Here it is:

1234 Old Address

Boring Town, USA

On Jun 16, 2011 9:10 PM, "Older Sister" wrote:

okay,

just addressed two letters to you that have been smooshed in my bag for 2+weeks.

sending up bday present (what you asked for) in mom's car.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXXO,

K

did you get that? it was a double X O at the end.

From: younger sister (aka NEW HOME OWNER)
To: older sister
Sent: Thu, June 16, 2011 9:12:14 PM
Subject: Re: need your address

Got it. XX back. Don't remember asking for anything.... Should be a fun surprise. Xoox

Re: need your address

From:	Older Sister
To:	Younger Sister (owner of a cute yellow house)

---

if you don't remember asking for it

then you probably bought it for yourself by now.

I love you.

Do it right.

If there were ever a time to dare,

To make a difference

To embark on something worth doing

IT IS NOW.

Not for any grand cause, necessarily –

But for something that tugs at your heart

Something that is worth your aspiration

Something that is your dream.

You owe it to yourself

To make your days count.

Have fun. DIG DEEP. Stretch.

Dream big.

Know, though,

That things worth doing

Seldom come easy,

There will be times when you want to

Turn around

Pack it up and call it quits

Those times tell you

That you are pushing yourself

And that you are not afraid to learn by trying.

Persist.

Because with an idea,

Determination and the right tools,

You can do great things.

Let your instincts, your intellect

And let your heart guide you.

TRUST.

Believe in the incredible power

Of the human mind

Of doing something that makes a difference

Of working hard

Of laughing and hoping

Of lasting friends

Of all the things that will cross your path

Next year

The start of something new

Brings the hope of something great.

Anything is possible

There is only one you

And you will pass this way but once.

DO IT right.

- AU

On, Why We Relayed.

Three days ago, my family relayed.

Boy, did we relay.

And I'm happy to report, Nonie can relay with the best of them

We relayed for Stan and Nan, of course.

Two of the best of the best.

But, throughout the night, our hearts opened up. Our original tears for Stan and Nan, gave way to big, salty, stingy tears for Others.

Most, we'd never even met.

We relayed for all that we don't understand.

About cancer....

about life.

And, we relayed for the little boy

there in all the dusty and sunshine-filled corners of our world asking us to explain

that which we don't understand.

We relayed for friendship.

We relayed for those friends who don't have our matching shirt to morph them into our team.

And for those friends, who will wear the team shirt with oodles of pride if

only given the honor.

There is so much that we relayed for.

But as we flip through our pics from the memorable and emotional evening we realize that....

Above all,

we relayed for love.

And, we especially relayed for...

the mother-less children in the crowd

and the child-less mothers in heaven.

This is why we relayed.

When play finds us.

Sometimes, our play is organized.


"Decky doo, go get your racket!!!!"

Sometimes, we drive really far to watch others play...
"Hey daddy, how long is 20 more minutes?"

Our drive is so far, in fact, that we are obligated to stop in Mystic for ice cream cones.
Happy to report that more ice cream now goes in (the mouth) than on (the clothes).


And the players who play? They are the best in the world.
"Ole, ole, ole, ole...."

We play around in the car during the long drive home.
okay, Mommy and Dec play, Nonie practices her anti-cavity regime.


We play with Fred.
Have you met him yet? He is Nonie's soul-mate.



And speaking of Nonie, she plays too.
"Mom watch, Mom watch me, Mom do you see me? I summersalted"


Oh buttercup will play.
All day, if you let her.

Of course, all that playing works up an appetite!
How bizzzzaaarrrre (as in ice cream & candy).


Sometimes. We don't even TRY to play.
Really, we don't - we just jump off rocks.

But then, play just finds us.

So, here's to all things al fresco and summer.

And here's to letting play find you.

onomatopoeia

I came home tonight to a formal note from the health department at the school warning of an outbreak of coxsackie - you know, hand-foot-mouth-disease. Awesome, I thought, as I flipped the notice into the recycling bin.

Anyway, just that word: coxsackie, makes me cringe a little.

Could we all just agree now that coxsackie sounds like its meaning?

Admittedly, fizz & hiss are better examples of onomatopoeia, but I think coxsackie is right up there.

For those still reading, the real highlight of the evening was coming home to these incredible eyes, this scattering of cute freckles, and this huge heart that sometimes spews forth passion and emotion that can bowl and unassuming mother right over.

Which leaves me with the point to all this:

Coxsackie?

Foe? Friend?

Today I ran. For the first time in some time. I ran. It wasn't pretty, but I did it.

I actually ran yesterday, too. But that doesn't count because it was about 20 minutes

in duration (sandwiched between Dec's game and The Hub's game) and it was all about

"getting back in time".

For the record I did:

...

Run.

And, get back in time.

***

For several weeks Dec and Nonie, The Hubs and I have noticed several holes in our lawn.

On special moments, when our backyard fills with excited "yelps!" the kids have spotted the chipmunk who built the holes scurrying back and forth between them.

"THERE HE IS!!!!!!"

"I SEE HIM! DO YOU SEEM HIM???? I SEE HIM!!!!!"

"OVER THERE, RIGHT THERE, no, RIGHT THERE!!!"

I've even had the privilege of making eye-contact with the Chipmeister.

He looks at me, cheeks full. Oh, so full.

We make eye contact and then he darts to the highest stone he can find.

HE STANDS on top of the stone as if declaring:

"This is My Yard, Back Off", and then darts to a hole and slips one full-story below us - in

a flash we're all wondering if he was real or not....

When I've made eye contact with that there Chipmeister - I've oft' thought:

My sunflowers this year are goners.

There is NO WAY they will withstand that cute, and cunning mammal.

I had flashbacks to the grand grey squirrels who rode my sunflowers in the breeze last summer - while nibbling on their sweet, sweet buds....

oh the horror.

So it surprised me today when:

***

I ran (literally, jogged) past a flattened chipmunk in the middle of the road just on the hill up by the lake and thought, "oh, no! is that MY chipmunk?"...

I actually felt my once puffed-out heart fall flat and lifeless alongside the flattened chipmeister...

That-there chipmunk may just be my foe

or rather,

my sweet & cunning friend.

It is bittersweet, this day is.

I'm sad to see him go.

But as, I watered the sunflowers this evening, all I could think was:

Live on, my sweet sunflowers. Live on.

brothers are good, too

I missed my brothers this morning as I watched them holding hands in the gym. Interlocking their fingers, his pale and freckly, hers chocolatey brown.
They are siblings and it doesn't matter that she is a little girl and he a budding boy and all that terrors that entails.
They are siblings and it doesn't matter that she is 4 and he is 9.
They are siblings and it doesn't matter that she was born in Africa, adopted to a loving family in Vermont a year ago, when she could not speak a word of English, and he has been born and raised as small-Catholic school royalty.
Their love for each other transcended their gender, age, or birth. It was a love so pure between two siblings in an early morning game of sharks and minnows. As the thunder and lightning roared outside they held hands and crisscrossed the gym floor. She a step or two behind. Her little pre-k legs struggling to keep up and his growing third grade body seeking protection for his little sister.
As I watched I could feel the connectedness in their fingers. I imagined it was my hand wrapped around Trip's as he drove me on summer visits to colleges I never had a dream of being accepted to. I'm sure he knew. But he pulled me ahead anyway. I imagined I was in Boston this past September, crying tears of joy that my big brother Chris was so happy. How can you not rejoice in your brother's love? I imagined I was in the blue suburban with Mark. Dropping him off at the Mt. Kisco train station the day he moved out of Gray Rock and embarked on his journey in the city. I cried and I cried because who would I watch Dawson's Creek with and sit upstairs and giggle with throughout my awkward teenage years with him a whole hour away?
I was her this morning. I was the little girl. Being tugged behind her big brother with the freckles all over his face. I felt his hand dragging her to safety. I watched his back as he pulled her with him, ensuring they got to the other side as one. I felt the love she was feeling, because I have felt it, too.
What an unbelievable way to start her day, and mine.

And I knew, even as the tagger came at them
and he let go
zagging away from her zig
leaving her on her own,
to get himself to safety,
I knew she would be okay.
She would make it safely, too.
Because he showed her how.

And she did.