FALLING UP

Dare you to find two more beautiful things than what you may find in this pile of leaves. ;-)

Got whooshed with the loveliest crispness in the air this morning when I hit the garage door opener to take #1 to school. Jr. Mint and I noticed, in fact, on our morning outing, that we both had goose bumps on our legs. Looked darling on an olive skinned four year old, but not sa much on a forty six year old who appears from the departing view as though ankles, calves and thighs may've been used at some point for surface street maps. It's warming up quickly however, and now that Jr. Mint has found two petrified cicada bugs, one lovely shimmering rock (piece a concrete) for his Mommy, and quite successfully gotten the wiggles out, we have made it inside before the humidity beats us to the punch. It's not fall yet.

#1 son is worried about the funeral home visit this evening. He concealed his concern by asking if it would cut into our time together, but considering his second question was what was the last funeral did he go to and who sat beside him and what did he have to do, and the fact that he was holding his own hands --- a clear giveaway of when that baby is stressed --- I made one lighthearted swiping statement that he could take his Nintendo DS Lite and that he, Jr. Mint and I would walk around, visit family, and then go out onto the funeral home lawn and sit and take the other family kids with us. Maybe lie in the grass and look at cloud animal shapes. Suddenly his hands relaxed, letting go of each other. Amazing.

I will have to miss the funeral tomorrow. We have a baseball awards ceremony that conflicts, and #1 son will be receiving an award or of course we'd skip the baseball thing. But things tend to work out the way they're supposed to organically if you leave them alone, and she was Ronny's aunt so he's going to the funeral. I'm taking #1 son to his awards ceremony which leaves him far away from the funeral and in a happy, appropriate environment under a HUUUUUGE oak tree by the ball field. And as for Ronny's aunt - at 12:00noon on Saturday I can look straight up through the trees into the big old beautiful blue sky, and I imagine she'll look down and recognize that I'm celebrating her life from right where I am.