Ten Rides Around the Sun: Nightswimming

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.
- Henry David Thoreau



He decided that he wanted to celebrate his first decade on earth with a nightswimming pool party.  We reserved his favorite pool for an after hours party, but a couple of hours before the start time we received a call stating there was an accident at our chosen pool and our party had to be moved to a new location.  I quickly messaged our party guests and hoped for the best.  It turns out, we were moved to Lake Thoreau and it could not have been more perfect!

Friends old and new gathered to celebrate until the sun went down and the moon showed up - and it was a joyous blur...a splash you might say!

After the party, as I tucked him into bed, he said, "Mama...things are just things but friendships is the real gift".  I couldn't agree with him more.



Below is the playlist that he created for his party.  We were spinning it "old skool" on a boombox
 poolside.



PS.  Here's a few scenes from the party prep..

 

Birthday Letters: Ten

Dear Satchel,

You have officially made your 10th ride around the sun!  What a marvelous decade it has been!

You have entered the age of funny face photos, wacky dance antics and seemingly limitless albeit sometimes obnoxious sound effects.  May you always believe that the endless supply of gumballs is because of whimsical parenting, and not merely a tactic to keep your mouth busy blowing bubbles.

This school year graced you with two of your favorite teachers, Mr. Anderson and Ms. Byrum and as such we have watched you grow.   You began the year struggling to "find your place" as you put it and have ended the year having established a sense of connection.  You have learned the art of self expression through writing stories, fancy power point presentations and incredible lego creations. 

You remain steadfast in your generosity, often insisting that you use your allowance to buy your friends a treat at from the ice cream truck.




You are a very empathetic boy and I can't help but reflect on the time when you asked me for money for a spontaneous purchase of pokemon cards - and - I gave you my last five dollars.  That afternoon you handed me a five dollar bill that you removed from your savings jar.   

You said, "I want to pay you back because I get paid for the chores I do and you don't and you gave up your job to be my mom and moms do a lot but they don't get paid".


We talked about how the rewards of motherhood are treasures greater than money.  I slipped the money back into your jar, but that night I found it back on my pillow with a note.  I decided to honor your wish and keep it.  I will KEEP it, not spend it and frame the note with the bill to remember your thoughtfulness, to remember our many deep conversations about life and love, to remember that moment.

We do have our moments, don't we?!?!  Moments of great joy and wonder - like watching the meteor shower, or that sunset picnic in the mountains where we found ourselves surrounded by fireflies and one wayward bear.  Of course there are moments far less stellar - like the one for which you do a hilarious impersonation of me getting frustrated with you  (after having to repeat myself for the eleventeenth time ) and how we both laugh ourselves breathless over it.  Thank you for teaching me to laugh at myself.  Thank you for your special blend of grace.   We make mistakes and we make amends and this is all a part of our humanness.  And these are just some of the lessons that you teach me year after year.  Thank you for the reciprocal gift of unconditional love and for the many ways you show it. 

On this anniversary of your birth, know that you are and always will be the greatest treasure of my entire life.  I celebrate you!

 (for beautiful you are my world, my true)

Happy 10th ride around the sun, Satchel.
Thank you for being my son.

All my love,
Mama

(Posted at the time of your birth)

What's Wrong With This Picture?

To the mom who gathers all the unsold lunches at my son's elementary school and brings it to the homeless shelter every single day - I see you.

To the lunch lady who silently paid for the child's food because she knew there was no money left on the lunch card - I see you.

To the little girl who removed the caterpillar from the sidewalk and placed it on the grass so it wouldn't get squashed - I see you.

To the boy who gave his snack to the one who didn't have any - I see you.

To the person who spent 179 million dollars on a Picasso painting when 80% of the world population lives on less than 10 dollars a day - I see you.

Lama Cimpmanka Rinpoche

The soul is here for its own joy - Rumi

Happy Mother's Day!

“Blessed be the mind that dreamed the day
the blueprint of your life
would begin to glow on earth,
illuminating all the faces and voices
that would arrive to invite
your soul to growth.

Praised be your father and mother,
who loved you before you were,
and trusted to call you here
with no idea who you would be.

Blessed be those who have loved you
into becoming who you were meant to be,
blessed be those who have crossed your life
with dark gifts of hurt and loss
that have helped to school your mind
in the art of disappointment.

When desolation surrounded you,
blessed be those who looked for you
and found you, their kind hands
urgent to open a blue window
in the gray wall formed around you.

Blessed be the gifts you never notice,
your health, eyes to behold the world,
thoughts to countenance the unknown,
memory to harvest vanished days,
your heart to feel the world’s waves,
your breath to breathe the nourishment
of distance made intimate by earth.

On this echoing-day of your birth,
may you open the gift of solitude
in order to receive your soul;
enter the generosity of silence
to hear your hidden heart;
know the serenity of stillness
to be enfolded anew
by the miracle of your being.”

― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

And the Winner Is....

The winner of the Time Flies Mother's Day Giveaway is Brittani Adams!  Thank you to all who have played along with me.  I look forward to this special giving every year.  My apologies that I do not have an image to go with this post, but my Finder crashed and a delightful Apple Genius is currently fixing it.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Made so & rooted by love,
Wendy