It is always interesting to see how our last full day is spent before the family must separate again. I have (almost) given up trying to orchestrate “the perfect last day” and am learning to really trust whatever shows up. So there I was, sitting pretty in my trust and I get a phone call from Adam. I laughed because Adam and Eva were on the phone (I giggle easily). I commented as such and Adam burst out laughing, which was a good thing for both of us. Adam called to tell me the news about my car. His voice had the same tone of the doctor telling you the test is positive. My joke re Adam and Eva put us both at ease and outside of the dread. When he told me a new transmission was the diagnosis I sighed and said “I LOVE starting the year with a new transmission!!” I don’t even know where that came from but weirdly it felt true. Like somehow my communication with the Divine would be enhanced, richer and even more fruitful. The fact that the price tag could have bought me the new living room furniture we need plus a rug from Mansour’s was not lost on me. I told my husband that if the year’s first bill is so big then prosperity galore must be on the horizon for 2015. Because this was “the last day” and I was already in full acceptance mode as a matter of survival I didn’t even pause to accept this news as anything but grace. Fear itself was not needed to point the way home, I was home.
The sun sets on the last day.
The rest of the day was spent in the usual flurry of last minute details including yet another visit to Walgreen’s to get a few ungettables in the UK. In addition my daughter insisted on finishing her koala mittens so we could send them to the pitiful koalas who had been injured in bush fires in Australia. Once she heard the report of the koala baby’s crying in the Eucalyptus after it’s mother had been taken by fire, nothing would stand in her way of making the much needed mittens requested by the International Fund for Animal Welfare. So, even though her final draft of a cookbook for her food editing class was due in hours, bags needed to be packed and there was still that pesky detail of booking train travel from London to Bath, there sat M happily sewing koala mittens in the kitchen.
We also visited a family friend celebrating his 98’th birthday (he used to fly Air Force One for Truman) to say goodbye, mailed belated Christmas presents and koala mittens and still met S & D for a celebration dinner at the pub. We were celebrating so many things, a great holiday together, beautiful details of the wedding were beginning to literally fall into our laps and of course “the last night together” until summer. We finished the night with a bang by driving downtown for giant wedges of carrot cake and eclairs and steaming cappacinos at Rick’s Dessert Diner (our tradition). We fell into bed at midnight (waaaay past my bedtime) and gave thanks for what is: koala mittens, dear friends, a new transmission, and carrot cake………….etc., etc., etc. Thank you Holy Spirit for your precious grace in all things, especially goodbyes.
A powerful reminder of what really matters sometimes – the love of small bears and carrot cake. The small daily blessings of life.
Truer words were never spoken. Thank you dear friend for this precious reminder. xoxo