Sometimes you have no clue, who values you

Last night we traveled to a young mans wedding reception, he grew up with our own son from Kindergarten through high school, years of Zoo and Museum field trips, multiple years of being room mom.
Playing basket ball out on the front of our driveway one whole summer, interrupted constantly by our dear neighbor would confiscate their ball  as they'd trespassed onto her precious lawn which she paid homage to in the highest form, this would result in a summer of her calling the police on 11 and 12 year old boys just to be a power wielding asshole, and one silly policeman threatening to take the boys away to the station if they continued playing basketball, and me sighting this was the USA and not Russia to my knowledge. It ended with her ranting at me one day while I watered the lawn, and psychotic break 101 I shot her in the face full force until her glasses flew off.  Suffice it say, yes the police came out one more time, but not for the boys.

After a time the boys didn't come for basketball anymore.

They did grow into teenagers though and remained very close friends. The friends went through growing pains together, their own peer issues, and also divorcing parents, split up households, one set of parents who didn't want their own child at a given time as the timing wasn't convenient, parents laid off and moving away, one parent turned to drugs, another arrested and tried for a crime, this made the kids lean in and stay packed tight together, talking it out by one young mans fire pit many nights, each of them offering the best support they could, we would see them at sporting events and prom pictures, they'd stop back here for awhile after school, always raiding the fridge, and then poof... they graduated from high school.

We rescued some of them from themselves at times, some times in the middle of the night, once they ended up painting the outside of our house as a penance, other nights they'd be offered a blanket and pillow and shown the couch or given a sleeping bag if it was too crowded.

Off to college they go, all thinking they would one day be the goal they'd set for themselves, and they all (except for one who wanted to be a policeman and is a policeman) have ended up doing entirely different careers than where they set out for, some of them would have underage drinking tickets or pot related violations in their path, some would haunt them in the job seeking world, some would be assisted with their first job by another, and yet at thirty years of age they remain very close friends.

So, we were surprised when we were invited, but we did attend, and I was strongly blown away by the love and care shown us by many of the young men, but especially by the groom who hugged and kissed us both and simply told us we had no idea how much we meant to him.

I think sometimes we measure our success by the monetary standards set world wide, and last night I knew clearly that we've been able to give more than that to some of these young men.  We gave them time and love, a port in their storms, and maybe some stability, it was a very sweet and generous show of love from them which I think surprised us both.

A day in the life, independence day

"When was the last time, you ever saw the sunrise?"  I am not always tuned in to the Universe the way I would like to be, and eventually it causes me some growing pains, an old Stephen King Line out of the gunslinger series still fits the best " Never forget the face of your Father", and for this old girl it's never forget the Universe and all those miraculous little pieces that comprise it, and give warmth and love and care to a single day.

I was awake at 2am, saw my spouse off to some well deserve fishing time with my brother, did the dishes from the night before, some laundry, and tidying in the wee hours, so I could get myself readied and off to the city for a day with Grandpa, which is for me a prized day, he and I never know where our conversations will take us, but we always end up on the great schemes of life, and speak of Gods and now add in some verbiage about "The creator of it all", my own thoughts of the Universe and what a powerful entity that is comprised of, it all comes out the same for some one, some place, with mine, nature plays a large part in maintaining balance in the Universe.

Spending time with my pal allows us to solve a few puzzles within the larger puzzle, and slowly we make progress on how to un-muddle some of things that can begin to weigh you down along the path, we've had this intricate relationship that developed over the span of the last 36 years, I can be myself with him, and as always he gives me a spoon to work with on the great recipe of life.

Watching him interact with Anna his nurse and seeing the interesting life concepts they discuss throughout his treatment, conversing in earnest on all different points of view only makes me prouder of what is inside the man who is my son's Grandpa, the nurse is a good person anyways, but she will walk away from the day a bettered person, a thinking person, and somehow a re-vitalized person, and during the conversations it comes to light she care very deeply for each of her patients (she even liked and enjoy our friend Ron recently mentioned in another post, so then I told her the end of his cab drivers story, and how much he actually respected their time as he conducted an analysis of how they're dispatched and into his TheMayReport.com it went).

I bring Grandpa back home, visit with some other family enjoying a day off from work,  and think I should head home as is my habit, but I have been invited to stop by my nephew's home, I haven't been there since January, but the aging adult hates to drive an unknown route (that is my one secret, I am a coward when it comes to driving the unknown), crap when would the next opportunity be? So off I go in the wrong direction from my home, lol.

No regrets on this day, I see even more family members, no real time for catch up, but plenty of time to see how much they've grown, and now they have even more people to love and grow with, they enjoy their beanbags together, and as they part plenty of hugs and kisses are given.

I say my goodbyes, and drive back out on an expressway free route my nephews given me, and "oh my God-Oh my Universe" I am presented with the most beautiful sunset, a golden globe to follow home, I am in such a euphoric state following this sunset, it is the fourth of july, I know I see hundreds of people lined up along the road (Northwest Highway by now) waiting town after town for a fireworks display that will start in two hours, and we're all witness to the same sunset, a star some think is dying, and I've wondered, and I actually pray not, and this like the icing on a cake completes my day, and completes me and some very heavy duty healing my day and Grandpa were able to give over to me.

There is so much beauty in the Universe, this one sunset would have to have healed many, and set things to right and into a balance.

I reach the house it's twilight. I'm home!