It’s the beginning of a new month, Journeyer.
Which means that in addition to bill money in my bank account, I also have raging hormones to look forward to every day for a week.
I’m talking the pimply-faced, swollen-body-limbs-aching-boobs-pants-don’t-fit, irritability-initiating, completely exhausting kind of physiological changes.
In between Wednesday’s shifts I napped from a little after nine until twelve-forty.
I am ever grateful for this past week’s shortened work days.
The long Memorial weekend gave me a much appreciated reprieve.
After being gone for the past several weekends, Warren and I spent this weekend catching up on some outside work.
But first up, I slept in until nine o’clock Saturday morning!
That sort of sleep-in usually leaves me sluggish all day, but I managed to make a full breakfast; wash and dry a few loads of laundry; clean the kitchen and the toilets; address the weeds that have taken over my flower garden; and then I cleaned the interior and exterior of Zee, my new-to-me little car.
Afterward, I spent a few glorious hours outside with sun, lush green trees, and this old Ford tractor as my companions.
Before the fire reduced our store to ashes and ended the farm as our full time business, I used to spend countless hours atop this steel horse.
I can’t tell you how many people are surprised to see me, this five-foot-two female who evidently looks more like the school teacher type than the machinery type, hop aboard our equipment.
Forklifts, bulldozers, backhoes, tractors, I’ve operated them all…
But I must admit that I much prefer the latter and would rather climb a tree than drive the other three.
Thankfully, I don’t have to and hopefully never will, again.
But the tractor?
There is something so peaceful about the whir of the blades, the engine’s hum, the breeze and the birds and the mountainous silence.
Driving affords me plenty of time to reflect.
As I thought about last week’s moments, the most prevailing thought was this: Cheeseburger. Rose. Sweater.
“He remembered ‘cheeseburger’, ‘rose’, and ‘sweater,’ ” my student exclaimed gleefully.
“They showed him three pictures and he remembered them all!” she continued in response to my inquiry about her brother.
This might not seem extraordinary, given the fact that he’s a vibrant thirteen-year-old, but it is a magnificent accomplishment.
You see, seven weeks ago he was an active, bubbly, and healthy teenager.
A freak skateboarding accident later he now wears a heavy rubber helmet and is relearning the simplest things.
Cheeseburger.
Rose.
Sweater.
This family’s life has been altered beyond my imagination, weeks in a hospital nearly three hours from home, long-term physical therapy, health fears, an entirely new education program to contend with, financial strains…
And so many new hurdles that most of us cannot even fathom…
And, yet, I cannot help but share in my six-year-old student’s happiness.
Her brother survived a series of seizures and a traumatic brain injury.
He is alive.
He came home from the hospital.
He stepped out of the car and walked to the bus stop to see his baby sister off to school.
And now, days after returning from what began as a tenuous and unknown future, he can remember cheeseburger, rose, and sweater.
This family is surely embarking on an entirely new set of firsts with their son, things that would likely fill another baby book.
Through the haze of hardship there are many reasons past, present, and future to celebrate…
And that knowledge fills my heart with joy.
Speaking of merriment, Big Guy’s team won their final match and clinched the tournament title.
Last week’s happy can also be found in the scent of the blooming lilac bushes bordering our drive…
In the delicate petals of my emerging iris…
In the wonder of my three children observing the baby bunny Beauty discovered (“rescued”) while weeding a neighbor’s garden…
Then there were three…
And then there were SIX!
In the company of my on-summer-break daughter (of course, when she’s not busy pushing her parents away)…
Enjoying watching Beauty enjoy herself…
In Fave’s visit and the laughter and camaraderie of three siblings…
In the recent warmth and fullness of the sun…
In the licensing of my new little car and in the feel of shifting through her five gears!
In the joyful memories of remembering my own children’s earliest object recognition and first words, which, growing up on a farm, included tractor…
And in those three little words…
Cheeseburger. Rose. Sweater.
What about you, Journeyer? What memories or Moment(s) fill your happy last week?
Until next we meet again, yours in healing and hope and happiness…
~AE