Floating Roses
After the whirlwind of the last month, with fun travel, work travel, kids visiting, exploring, wine tasting, getting my new place all up and lovely, new flooring, furniture building, and more – today I’m resting.
I was sitting on the balcony watching the world go by, the kids playing in the swimming pool, the neighbors playing tennis, and the ships and other watercraft floating by. All of a sudden, something pink floated up from below, hovered around, and gently landed on my foot. It was a dried, pink, rose petal.
As the breeze picked up, I saw more rose petals perform an amazing dance – both floating up, doing a little jig, graciously dancing, dipping, and twirling, looking for their next rest stop – then floating down to land where they like to rest before taking off to their next spin about.
If I were a superstitious person, I’d believe it’s the work of my mom…tossing rose petals onto my balcony for me to delight in them and let me know she’s still around. However, because I’m not superstitious, but merely a mix of whimsical and realistic, I realize that there are roses both upstairs and downstairs, and they naturally shed their petals and float around. But I like the first thought better, so I’m going with that.
This weekend, all of my darlings came to my new home. There is absolutely nothing better in my whole world than having my adult children all together, laughing, telling jokes, remembering the olden days. I’m so ridiculously proud of all of them. They are delightfully all grown up, all in charge of their own lives, all happy and healthy. I know I had a hand in it, but only to gently guide them (and not kill them) – they are the ones who made their destinies become their realities.
Speaking of darlings, my grandson is now officially running about. He loves my new place, with his very own cupboards all decked out with his toys and fun things to play with, like plastic measuring cups, plastic measuring spoons, and silicone cupcake tins. He loves the pool, and his own tub with his ducky toys. He is fascinated with anything that spins, and watches intently for a very long time when a round thing is dropped and makes noise as it flattens out on the ground.
When we visited him at home the other day, he very seriously took my middle daughter’s hands to instruct her to play “Patty Cake” and then stared deeply into her eyes, as if looking for the true meaning of Patty Cake – or maybe - just maybe - the meaning of life. His stare is so beguiling, innocent, and entrancing, that any one of us would (and do) play Patty Cake endlessly. Anything to make that little darling smile – which, happily, is his general nature.
