First Time Boutonniere-Maker

The requests of the bride for more and more floral accessories for her local wedding grew and grew. Finally the self-employed part-time florist/friend/neighbor asked me for help. I showed up at her house on Friday morning with no experience but not exactly clumsy fingers. She demonstrated how to make a garden flavored boutonniere from a marigold, eucalyptus leaf and a sprig of either rosemary (for health) or sage (for wisdom). I took to it like a ....well, you know. It was a fine morning indeed, working in her outdoor space, while she worked on table arrangements; one of the loveliest days of the summer; gabbing, clucking, tittering, guffawing and configuring eleven of these little gems for the lapels of the gentlemen in the wedding.

Friendship!

Two of these people were adopted from orphanages between the ages of three and four. The other person lost a brother before the age of forty and a best friend this year. All of us feel that the best way we can spend our time here on this planet is with people we love, day after day. Getting together when living many miles apart is an effort that pays off exponentially.

LRRH

Mag loved all the classic fairy tales. With her first grade classes, year after year, she used The Gingerbread Man in her curriculum with a great deal of creativity. Her class explored and discussed many versions of the story and always had a spectacular Gingerbread Tea in the fall when all the parents came to participate.

Her own personal favorite fairy tale was Little Red Riding Hood. There was something provocative and risque about the relationship between the wolf and LRRH. Mag believed that both characters lived in each of us as archetypes. Her goal was to love both roles and to nurture each appropriately, and she did a fine job all her life.


12/16/96

Emily,
I don't know if we're headed toward Grandma's but the trip sure is filled with adventures. May we wander off the path together many more times in the years ahead.

Right now I'm just waiting for that wolf to show up. If he doesn't come soon I'll have to go looking for him.

Merry Christmas

Love,
Maggie

Big Bass

We're having some trees cut on our property and the crew that showed up yesterday included a youngster who has a penchant for fishing. When it was break time, he took his pole and headed down the path to the lake, cast his line and within three minutes had a 18", 2 lb. bass from the reeds close to shore. Wow! In our experience, that is a first.

Letter Packets

Some years ago, I was ruthlessly sorting and throwing things out. My correspondence from the previous ten years was spared . I have thrown out letters in the past and regret it mightily to this day. My plan on this day (perhaps the summer of 2000?) was to save many of the letters and label packets according to their authors. I envisioned bringing the bundles with me to a nursing home someday where I would wistfully go through each one and relive the memories associated with each friend. Some people to whom I told this plot thought it totally bizarre while others were hatching the same plot themselves.

Now that Maggie has died, I remembered that surely I must have a packet with her name on it. Yes, indeedy. It has been brought to my bedside where I read a few each night and call her presence to mind and heart. One of the last things I whispered in her ear was, "Think of all the secrets we have shared, Mag," and these letters are proof. Before reading them, I thought I might share them with her family, but have subsequently decided that they'll remain between the two of us, except for some loving excerpts and tributes to them

The letters stop circa 2000, as that is when email became so much more prevalent in my life. I love email because of the speed with which I can type and communicate, affording me a greater volume of missives and intimacy with others. Yet, there are no more packets in my future and for that I am sad.

65

Recently I had my sixty-fifth birthday. Being a summer child, I have had the pleasure of basking in splendid, warm, sunny birthdays followed by meteor showers in the middle of the night. This year was no exception. Friends gathered on our porch, patio, and deck to help me celebrate reaching Medicare age.

At this age I realize a few things more than in my youth.

1. Irritants in life abound and our only hope is not to eliminate them, but to control our responses to them.
2. Everyone is struggling even if it looks otherwise.
3. "Stuff" is amazingly meaningless; friendship is amazingly important.
4. You don't have to be great; you can be good enough.
5. Work with what you have instead of wishing you had something different.
6. You gain confidence by doing things you are afraid of doing.
7. Speak up in support of justice and tolerance.
8. Win-win is the solution to aim for in conflict.
9. People CAN change.
10. Every day is a good day; you just have to rise to each occasion.

Vintage Shopping with the Grandkids

It has given me great pleasure to introduce my grandkids to vintage shopping. Sophia and I spent a couple of hours with friends who also love estate sales this morning. It was wonderful seeing these four and seven year olds enjoying old things rather than Ikea or Toys R Us. They were happily occupied for as long as we were. Neither of them ever asked to leave. They actually argued about who would get the Saint cards (I"m sure they're called something else). Maybe they thought they were trading cards? Who cares?! Dylan chose a Digger Dog for whom I made a collar and leash when we got home, and a great old sock doll that needs a bit of repair. Happiness for under $5 each.

Girl's Night

Between guests, we ladies had a movie and brownie a la mode night. We viewed The Young Victoria, exquisitely played by Emily Blunt. Jessie is in town from Chicago and just had her sixtieth birthday last month. Margaret's daughter-in-law went to the hospital to have M's first grandchild, a girl while we were together. Still not here yet, two days later. There's nothing like a Girl's Night to cheer one and wipe a few romantic tears from the eyes.

L to R, Jessie, Margaret, Me

Maggie's Presence

After our family/guests left this morning, we started the laundry and clean-up, preparing for round #4, which starts on Friday. The heat and humidity slowed us down and we decided to take some beach time. After all, we have a wonderful 660' sandy beach and don't sit on nearly enough. It's one of the dangers of having a year-round house on a lake. You're not really on vacation when you're there.

As I sat and swam and felt perfectly quiet and content, I thought of my dear Mag and how much she loved swimming. She lived just down the street, a block from the Atlantic Ocean and never took her location for granted. Her alternative home in NH, was near mountains and lakes and there, too, she always sought life on the water, delighting in fresh water as much as salt water. Earth's waters always restored and refreshed her and made her giggle.

In the last two years, she was rather reduced to sitting in her chosen spot in her living room where as she put it, "My world has become small, Em." I replied that was true, but that her small world was larger than most people's and had actually expanded in many ways. Because of her extraordinary ability to connect with people, with the spiritual, with possibility, this absolutely was true and she knew it. What a gift it was to have had her in my life and to continue to feel her presence.

Mag is Always with Me

Mag is Always with Me

Between Guests

We had one evening between overnight guests and scored a delicious dinner invitation from Beth and Brian. It was heavenly to be served a gourmet dinner, sit on their patio with Quetzal and Ross, sip Zinfandel, view the lake and laugh about life, love and the hopeless pursuit of happiness. Ross and I now share a love of the Game of Kong, rather than biting each other.