To: L., 10/12/2010 …you became a big brother. As you played in a schoolmate’s garden, your mother was five blocks away at the hospital, delivering your baby sister. As proof that that the Universe is always expanding, you are now even more beautiful and beloved than you were yesterday.
To: B., 10/15/2010…arrangements were made to pluck you from the house where you’ve lived independently into your late 80’s. Your new residence is a two-room suite in a nursing home. Now, to greet the dawn, you’ll first step into a fluorescently-lit corridor and descend four floors in an Otis elevator.
To: W., 10/16/2010…your five-foot diameter, twenty-year-old hydrangeas were bundled in burlap and carefully moved from the front walk to the back yard. Now, in accordance with Feng Shui principles, visitors and good chi can find your front door.
To: G., 10/25/2010…The mirror called. Yesterday you were unaware of your appearance. Now you consult the glass.
To: J., 10/30/2010…The company you admire above all others needs you. Word of your vision and expertise has reached its shores. Book the red-eye.
To: MM: 10/31/2010…Shelves were cleared and tools gathered. Pencils, paper and paint wait to record the ideas that through you, will move from ether to matter.
” . . . if this were a sight that could be seen only once in a century or even once in a human generation, . . . (this wonderful event) would be thronged with spectators. But it can be seen many scores of . . . (times) in any year, and so . . . the inhabitants gave not a thought to the beauty . . . ; and because they could see it almost any . . . (time) , perhaps they will never see it.”
Rachel Carson from “The Sense of Wonder”
Oh, I love what you wrote to Lucas. So very true and beautifully written. Thank you so much for being so supportive and available to us while our family is far away. I look forward to getting to know you better and being there for you, too, when you need us! 🙂