Grateful Days

Happy Birthday Cheryl!


Today is my daughter's birthday. I remember the first moment I held her. She would not be happy if I said how long ago, but as I did earlier this year, she too has had a major decade change...I still feel that same deep love today as then, when I hug her. But these days I hold her, and do not want to let go... June 13 she passed out while driving, her car flipped over and crashed in to a parked car( no one was in the other vehicle)...I was called to the hospital and was told she had had a brain bleed, which caused her pass out. I feared for her life. After further tests she was diagnosed with AVM.
We are still in the thick of it, and will be for a while. There is no such thing as a quick fix in this situation. But what is important is my daughter celebrated her life today! She is here with us. Her life and my grandsons life is upside down, she can not be alone, her car is gone, life is changed, her routine is upset, which she finds confusing. Her memory has gaps in it, sometimes words are hard to grab...But she is here...She has some treatments that are less than appealing for her to think about that will be coming up and still recouping, but she blew out her candles tonight.
I tell anyone who will listen to me, life is short. It can change in an instant. We are quite cognizant that this could have turned out very differently. But today, her birthday, we spent the afternoon together, on my deck, alone, just quietly talking or me listening, thankfully listening to this wonderful young woman. Thankful for her very life, thankful I could hold her in my heart and listen to her fears, her hopes and her thoughts about this new fork in her road.


I took her to one of her favorite spots to walk and just be, Meshanticut Lake, the other day. We took our time and we sat. She told me she thought this was the best view. So I took it, enlarged it and framed it. Now she has it to look at whenever.

There is allot more to say but for now this will do. I can write about her, the range of our emotions, fear, and the incredible kindness of everyone we know and some we don't know. Yes, I should like to say more about all of that. The funny thing is, and there is always a funny thing with me, it keeps me going. But when I began this blog she would ask me, when are you going to put me in your blog...Well, here she is, meet Cheryl.

Thanks for reading and have a great day. Prayer and good thoughts are welcome

Birthday Thoughts

Well, today is my birthday...One I was not happy about, a big one, a decade changing one...one I have been watching creep up on me ever so quietly. Stomping my feet, no this can't be. Where ever has the time gone. Just last week a program aired on TV about the Blizzard of '78, thirty years ago. That bit of information caught me up short! Thirty years...

But as this week began and it was now imminent, just hours away, I slipped into grateful acceptance. I was reading a blog I enjoy, Pomegranates and Paper yesterday, another birthday girl. Loretta said she was grateful for having arrived at her birthday intact. That statement caused me to think. Yes, I too have "arrived intact" and very grateful, also grateful for my family, husband, children, grandchildren, cousin,dear friends who are like family and all the animals in my life...and very grateful for my health and general wellbeing. My life is full...

I started my day at 4 AM because my daughter needed to be at the hospital for an out patient
surgery and she just needed her Mom. I could not find any coffee ( Dunkin Donuts) open at that awful hour not to mention the stinken snow and ice on the roads...So I was my usual grumpy self before coffee. But my very grown up daughter with three children of her own just smiled and humored me and told everyone in ear shot that it was her Mom's birthday. How can you stay grumpy...impossible with everyone wishing you happy birthday. I started to think about the little ones who were entering the world while I was waiting for her to come out of surgery and recovery as we were in a ob/gyn hospital. Yes, I was getting quite philosophic. Ended that train real quick. Did some drawing, some more thinking, news watching and settled gently into this new number while I waited. I am still me, don't feel any different but maybe a little wiser, realizing time is not to be wasted on what ifs or squandered on meaningless things. I still look forward to each morning with anticipation and I have a twisted sense of humor that serves me well, gets me through allot. So I look forward to the rest of my day wherever it takes me. I am content with wherever or whatever, I am OK.

Now if we could just fast forward to spring...no, that is kind of a what if...so I will enjoy this time to be in and dry and warm and settle down to doing something I enjoy or maybe just a nap with the girls...they have started without me.


Found this beautiful quote which I thought I would share with my animal loving readers. Which by the way guess who won at The Westminster Kennel Club dog show the other night. It would be a very proud Beagle by the name of Uno. My "girls" were quite excited, not...Only food has that power.



Dogs are our link to paradise.
They don't know evil or
jealousy or discontent. To sit
with a dog on a hillside on a
glorious afternoon is to be
back in Eden, where doing
nothing was not boring ---
it was peace.

Milan Kundera (1929- )
Franco-Czech writer; author
of 'The Unbearable Lightness
of Being."



Finished some chenille scarves.

Sorry if this was alittle disjointed, just where I am today. Have a great day and thanks for reading.
Peace...