settling in

Hey Maggie,

I had my first day back at work today.  I got up, got ready, sat down at my computer, and was not sure what I do. 

Then I remembered.

I am still trying to figure who and where I am and what happened while I was away. 

While I was gone there was a storm, and the wind blew one of the screens out of the dining room window.  My younger cat escaped.  There have been sightings, but she will not come to any of us.  I had this fantasy that I would get home, and she would hear my voice and come to me. Yeah, that has not happened.

It is amazing how close she was to feral, and probably is now. My biggest concern is that she will wander home pregnant and gift me with a litter of kittens.  I will then be hitting friends and family up to adopt...but, we'll see. I do hope she comes home.

This year, out west, we had an adventure with the redwoods.  We hiked through the grove that was used as a setting for the Forest Moon of Endor, home of the Ewoks in the Star Wars movie.  There were ferns as tall as me.  The trees stretched up forever.  There were char marks on some of them. But someone who worked there said the grove became protected in the 1920s, and the trees were exactly the same now as they were then.

Being with the big trees was otherworldly.  Nephew speculated that it was because the trees reach so high for their messages!

We also spent a short time at the beach, feeling the Pacific Ocean.  I have been yearning for the ocean, wishing I had the money to rent a house on the shore of New Hampshire of Maine for a week or two...I loved the smell, but it made the yearning deeper.

I saw a seal swimming in the surf.  That was cool.  I picked up a small black pebble with a thin white line around it. My son told me it is a traveler's stone. It always brings you back to home, to where you began.

I hope it is portent.  I would love to be a traveler.

I got to spend time with my grandchildren.  It is so difficult only seeing them once per year.  They grow and they change and I just get to see the big steps.  At least I see them regularly enough for them to know me, for them to have a place to identify me in their lives. One night we made a Moroccan meal. My grandson found Moroccan music.  My son put a gauze tent up in their yard.  We sat on pillows on the ground, and we ate with no silverware.

I hope they remember the moments when I am there!!

So Dad went home today.  Apparently he is doing well, healing quickly, and Mom said - strong as an ox.  We still have not gotten there to visit.

My youngest and I had planned to go this summer, but she stretched the donor tendon in her knee, and will probably need a corrective surgery.  She is in pain, waiting for her doctor to be available.

Life goes on...

Love and hugs from Clare