Remembering Dad on his birthday
Click to play.
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Just a little more about Ethiopia…
Click to view…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oS6jf78LFg]
Where is she NOW?
This morning, in an email to my sister, I wrote the following sentence: “I haven’t talked to mom all week, so for all I know they’ve left the country again.”
Her response: “Yup, they’ve left the country again. Good guess.”
There is just something very weird about writing a sentence like that, primarily in jest, and finding out it’s true. And what’s even more weird is realizing that the response no longer surprises you.
To put it into context – for the first 37 years of my life, I KNEW where to find my mom. Her life was lived within a fairly predictable and dependable space. She was at home, on the farm. If she wasn’t there, then she could be found at the store she worked at for many years. If all else fails – check the neighbour’s house. Or the church. Once in awhile, she’d venture to the city, but then she was visiting either myself or my sister, so we knew where to find her. About once a year, she’d fly out to visit my brother, or spend a few days at my other brother’s house. That was about it. Not particularly exciting, but always dependable.
Then, for the next two and a half years, after dad died, she lived in the city, and though the walls of her life were a little less confined, she NEVER left town without telling me.
Now, suddenly, her life has been transformed and I no longer know where to find her. She’s home less than she’s away. She’s been married less than two years, and in that time, they’ve spent two months in Holland, travelled to Alberta more times than I can count, and hopped across the border into the U.S. probably more times than she’s done in her whole life before this.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m happy for her. She loves to travel and didn’t get nearly enough of it in her life before this. She’s got a new lease on life, and I certainly don’t begrudge her that. She has spent so many years being “dependable”, she has earned the right to be “footloose and fancy free.”
But – it can feel a little disconcerting to never know for sure where your mom is and when you can reach her. Moms are meant to be dependable. Reliable. Unchanging. Somehow, in a way I can hardly explain, it makes the roots of my tree feel a little shaky.
Besides that… does she have to make up for ALL that lost time in just a couple of YEARS? Sheesh.
Wordless Wednesday
(Well, almost wordless. I can’t resist SOME explanation)
In one of those golden moments in Ethiopia
I sat on the steps of the staff housing
at the base camp in Arb Gebya
watching Hawk in flight.
He’d smelled the remains of the goat
they’d slaughtered for our supper
and he hoped for a morsel.
Soundlessly, he landed
on a fence not far from me.
As I fixed my camera on him
he spread his mighty wings
and took flight.
Glorious Hawk,
I thank you
for the brief and beautiful visit.
Taking a page from Hope’s book
Sick.
Fun Monday
At first, when Swampwitch announced the theme for this Fun Monday, I just couldn’t decide what to highlight as the most memorable posts I’d either read or written. So I took my time thinking about it and didn’t end up signing up. Today, I’m at home with a sick child, and after too many hours of being awake during the night, holding her hair away from her face while she vomitted into the toilet, I just can’t focus on all the things I SHOULD be doing. Instead of cleaning the house or doing laundry or writing those articles that I need to write for work, I spent a little time surfing and reliving blog memories. Now I’m ready to partake of all the fun.
There have been lots of memorable posts that have provided wonderful insight into the lives of my many new blog friends, but this time around, I decided to keep it in the family. Today’s theme – the beauty of being “Aunty”. The following posts are about some of the wonderful people who have entered my life as nieces and nephews, and the equally incredible people who are their Mommies.
My sister ccap has been blogging about as long as I have. At first, we didn’t tell each other we were doing it, but it didn’t take long for the secret to get out. Her memorable post is called “Grace” and it’s about the long journey from being “favoured Aunt” to “the one and only Mommy who soothes my tears and fears”. Ccap has been an incredible Aunty to my daughters, and in fact they often think of her as their “second mom”. But as every Mommy knows, the leap from Aunty to Mommy, especially if it is long in coming, is still a huge and significant one.
My sister-in-law, Accidental Poet, has also been blogging nearly as long as I have. One day she sent me an email that said “I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours.” And thus we stepped into each other’s blog worlds. Her memorable post is actually a series of posts that have the theme of “Seven Years Ago”. The seven years ago that she was referring to was the incredible event of adopting a very special little boy named B. The first of the series is here, and it’s actually about the death of her father which preceded the entry of B into their lives. Of the series, my personal favourite is the one in which I met little B – a very unexpected and delightful event that will forever rank among the favourite moments of my life.
The two little people at the centre of these posts are just two of the seven little people who call me Aunty. Each one of them is special and unique, and if any of the other parents blogged, I’d probably link to them too. There is something incredibly delightful about watching these little people come into the world and grow into the people they were meant to be.