Category: Everything Else

We find a delight

in the beauty and happiness of children

that makes the heart too big for the body.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Oh, how I love Indian Summer.

Just when I’d grudgingly given up, hauled out the sweaters, fleece robes, and heavy blankets in preparation for the cool weather ahead- the cold days ahead- Nature smiles upon me and warms everything back up.

74 degrees, golden sunshine, and best of all, the kids are in the middle of a four day weekend. We spent all day yesterday outside, “unplugged”,gathering leaves, running around, taking pictures, hunting up caterpillars, generally basking in the unexpected warmth.

The kids found a tire back in the woods and obviously, that meant that the Universe wants them to make a tire swing. I left them to it. I have no idea how they managed to wrap and secure the rope around the branch, but they did it, and they were very proud of themselves.

They took turns swinging for hours, taking a break long enough to pack up a snack and bring it outside to sustain them. When they finally came in, they were, oh my god, sooo filthy. But tired and happy.

This morning, the first thing they did was eat breakfast and race back outside. How wonderful is that?

And I bask, not only in the sunshine, but in their freedom and their reckless joy. I wish I could capture these days, bottle them, and live them over and over.

Thank you so much to everyone who left me birthday wishes, here on my blog and on their own blogs; who wrote on my wall on Facebook; to those who sent me e-cards, and those who called me on the telephone! Between that, and the fact that my family cooked dinner and cleaned up afterwards so that I could catch up on my reading, I had the best day and received everything I wanted.

Have a beautiful weekend!

The value of marriage
is not that adults produce children,
but that children produce adults.

-Peter de Vries

Or so one would hope.

It appears that the spider who lives on our back porch is expecting.

Not to be a gossip monger or anything, but so is 17-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears. Three months after giving birth to her first child.

Sigh. What to say? Where to begin? This whole thing upsets me.

Motherhood is so hard; young motherhood even harder (and I was 21 when I had Jacob. I can’t imagine what it’s like at 17).

What kind of support system does a 17 year old have? What is it like to have to raise children in the face of a critical public eye? And most importantly, why didn’t she know better?

Is it really possible for someone who was apparently mature enough to have a job, give interviews, and otherwise live an “adult” life, to not know anything about proper birth control?

Really, I can’t feel anything but sorry for her. She was in such a hurry to become an adult. Well, there you go. There’s no going back now.

I wish her a safe pregnancy and I fervently hope that there is never any call for the media to bring her to my attention again. May they lead boring, responsible, happy, well-adjusted lives.

I can dream, can’t I?

What’s your take? I’m still sorting through how I feel about this.

The article I linked to above brings Bristol Palin’s pregnancy into the mix. Is that relevant? Unfair? Do you think these girls make teenage pregnancy seem more acceptable? Less so? Does marriage automatically legitimize being pregnant at 17?

(I promise never to blog about a member of the Spears family again. This is just what’s on my mind this morning, and nothing else was going to get done until I mentioned it.)

Look,

I really don’t want to wax philosophic,

but I will say that if you’re alive,

you got to flap your arms and legs,

you got to jump around a lot,

you got to make a lot of noise,

because life is the very opposite of death.

And therefore, as I see it,
if you’re quiet, you’re not living.

You’ve got to be noisy,

or at least your thoughts should be
noisy and colorful and lively.

-Mel Brooks

How wonderful,
how sane,
how beautifully difficult
and therefore true.

-J.D. Salinger

So, as it turns out, Mel Brooks and I are kindred spirits. Who knew?

It’s my birthday! I am 32 today. I like the even number years better than the odd ones, how about you?

So far I have received twenty thousand “bigger, biggest, squeezy hugs” from Cass and an e-card, of Rerun from What’s Happening dancing his little heart out. (Thanks John, for filling my morning with dancing and laughter!)

Here’s a weird story I want to share right quick, and you have to indulge me, ’cause it’s my birthday.

My name, as you know, is Robin. The story goes that the day before my mother gave birth to me (16 hours in labor, people, I nearly killed her. She is no longer here to tell anyone that, but she would definitely want you to know), a robin flew into the living room window and fell lifeless to the ground.

My mother, apparently supercharged by maternal hormones because this would have been out of character for her, picked up the bird, took it inside, lay it in a warm oven, revived it, forced some milk down its throat (don’t ask me why, I don’t know), and let it live in the house. For a day.

It flew out into the great blue yonder as my father held the door open for my mother as she left for the hospital. And naturally, its courageous and resurrecting spirit lives on in me. Good stuff, right? This story would be faithfully retold every year on my birthday.

Yesterday, and this is no joke, a house wren flew into my house (through the cat door, wrens are curious little buggers) and hit a window.

It fell, stunned, but got right back up and circled drunkenly all around.

I yelled for the kids to keep the cats back and Cass and I managed to herd the poor dazed thing out of the house.

Thankfully I am not about to give birth, as this would indicate the Fates mean for me to name my child Wren. Or maybe House. Actually, House would be pretty funny, as I could tell everyone that I named my child after my TV boyfriend Dr Gregory House.

I am choosing to see this as a little birthday reminder of my parents, that although they have been gone some five years now, they are still a very real part of my life. Even though my mother is not here to tell the story behind my name, the story still finds a way to be told.

As John Muir says, “When we try to pick anything out by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” We are all connected, everything is connected, and for me today, everything is imbued with meaning and joyful remembrance.

Needless to say I am in high spirits. Know what would really put me over the top?

Birthday comments! Yes, I know, I am shameless. But what I would love today is a sense of connection with my internet pals, a sense that I’m not just talking to myself. Friends that are flesh-and-blood real life friends and family, this means you too!

Give me virtual hugs! Tell me stories! Get noisy!