The first two months of 2017 offered my little corner of the world reason to buzz as busily as a bustling beehive while my think tank prepared to welcome extended family and treasured friends with whom Will and I celebrated our 50th anniversary at a gala for 140, hosted by our sons. And soon after completing home-improvement projects in readiness to welcome 60 guests from out of town to wrap up that magical weekend with Sunday brunch in our home, t'was time for our immediate family to pack up and fly to the coast to enjoy Tony's seventh birthday celebration, and soon after that, we prepared to welcome all of our children and grandchildren, who flew in from the coast, yet again, to celebrate Passover and enjoy a week of spring break in our home (offering all of us reason to enjoy a whirlwind of activities, throughout our southwestern desert state inclusive of a rollicking good time enjoyed at our cabin where beds were blown up to accommodate our increase in number, over these past several years). And that brief synopsis of events, between January and April, serves to exemplify our family's subliminal awareness, concerning the richness of togetherness that we've experienced ever since Will's cancer surgery scared all of us into prioritizing time spent enjoying those we love most as topping our list of values, and if you ask how I know that to be true, I'd reply: Time and again, actions spoke louder than words.
Though our sons may not be as consciously aware of our communal desire to enjoy each other's company as often as possible, I, who feel officially initiated into this fourth (final) stage of life, believe it's likely that their intuitive intelligence has absorbed the fact that life is fleeting, and my perception is based in this reality: In the aftermath of Will's cancer surgery followed by 37 treatments of radiation, our family has made the most of every opportunity to enjoy each other's company as often as possible in appreciation of the fact that we're all cavorting healthily on this side of the grass (and coincidentally, not to be confused with morbidity, Will and I chose to update and sign our last wills, powers of attorney and family trust during recent months, as well. (As mentioned in a previous post, three cousins, all younger than me, passed, this year ... and Will's brother, Jeremy, has sadly been experiencing a rapid decline which, thus far, has mystified the medical community ...)
Though our sons may not be as consciously aware of our communal desire to enjoy each other's company as often as possible, I, who feel officially initiated into this fourth (final) stage of life, believe it's likely that their intuitive intelligence has absorbed the fact that life is fleeting, and my perception is based in this reality: In the aftermath of Will's cancer surgery followed by 37 treatments of radiation, our family has made the most of every opportunity to enjoy each other's company as often as possible in appreciation of the fact that we're all cavorting healthily on this side of the grass (and coincidentally, not to be confused with morbidity, Will and I chose to update and sign our last wills, powers of attorney and family trust during recent months, as well. (As mentioned in a previous post, three cousins, all younger than me, passed, this year ... and Will's brother, Jeremy, has sadly been experiencing a rapid decline which, thus far, has mystified the medical community ...)
Following our 50th anniversary gala, I was happily comotose for about a week before the month of March saw us enjoying our grand daughter, Princess Ravi, on a daily basis while her mommy and daddy packed up to move into their spacious new home. Time spent with Ravi on a daily basis included my participation in her Mommy and Me dance class, and happily, she and I enjoyed that joyous activity every Tuesday until the semester's end. As their first home was a mere ten minutes drive from our house, I'd held my breath while Celina and Steven researched possible neighborhoods throughout the city before choosing their lovely home, which barring occasional traffic delays, is only fifteen minutes away from our own ... Whew! Having been spoiled by living so close to each other for fifteen years, we feel blessed that their new home has added only five additional minutes to our drive now that they've settled in.
Late in March, we enjoyed a whirlwind weekend in California celebrating Tony's seventh birthday, and while observing the boundless energy of twenty first-graders bouncing all over an indoor trampoline park to their hearts' delight, my memory (which having little awareness of time passing by) jogged back and forth between Tony. (our seven year old, king for a day) and five year old, balloon man Ray, cavorting happily with their pals and mental images of our three sons leaping from trampoline to trampoline at a birthday parties when they were as young as Tony, Ray and Ravi are, right now, offering my conscious awareness sound reason to question: How in the world did these past forty years disappear as though magically into thin air?
Once our Passover feast had passed and our Haggadahs, leaping frogs and seder plate were stacked in our holiday cabinet for next year, I enjoyed two days of rest (while Barry's family set off to peer deep into the Grand Canyon) before Will and I packed up in readiness to caravan with the rest of our clan as we drove two hours north toward our cabin retreat in the cool mountain pines, where we hosted our sons' families for the remaining days of Spring Break.
Happily, Tony, Ray and Ravi love being together, and as I'm in love with everyone, my heart rejoices each time I realize that 2017 is proving to provide our family with a series of love-fests ... the only dampers marring my personal definition of idyllic being three fold: Jeremy's mysterious mental and physical decline; an on-going conflict with extended family that's proved beyond my control from its onset; and news from around the world topped with hearing Trump referred to as Mr President, which turns my ears into trampolines, refusing to absorb that oxy/moron into my noggin - Thank goodness our voting populous is awakening to their mistaken assumption that King Midas has ever cared a fig for anyone other than His Quick To Tarnish Royal Highness -.so with balance in mind I've directed my think tank toward taming my frustrations by stirring the tar and plucking the chickens in readiness for The Donald's royal ride out of D.C., which can't come soon enough for me!
9/22/2017
And now, having bared my heart on sleeve, tis past time to post this train of thought, penned but not published several weeks after our gala in February right before we received the SOS call in May to fly to Santa Fe to witness that which will have proved to be the final stage of Jeremy's rapid decline after which, upon returning to our desert home, I checked into summer classes for two year olds at our dance studio, because Dancing With The Stars had become Princess Ravi's favorite (dance-along) TV show ... suggesting that life tastes a lot more like sweet and sour chicken than we'd consciously like to know, and thus doth common sense suggest nourishing our spirits with the sweet side of life as often as possible so as to inspire our smiles to sparkle naturally from within the very depths of our souls, which yearn to feel immeasurably enriched, and time and again, that deeper truth rings true during this fourth stage of life when long term memory stretches back much farther than whatever is yet to come ....)
Will's brother, Jeremy, is seated on the right
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