The Blind Leading the Blind

NO, I am not dead. YES, I had my birthday last week and turned 64. NO, the house has not sold. YES, the housing activity is picking up, according to our realtor. YES, I'm still totally trusting the process and timing of everything. YES, there is always something to keep me busy (like weeding and mulching this week). YES, YES, YES. Always more YESES than NOES.

Now, let me tell you why I got so excited today and immediately became jazzed about posting it.

This was the image I posted yesterday on my Shutterchance (SC) site, from when we were in Brussels, Belgium, last July, 2008. I mentioned that it was my favorite of all the statues/fountains I saw in Brussels but I couldn't find out what it depicted or who sculpted it. Several commenters thought they were meterologists, checking on the rain/humidity!

Then a commenter from South Africa, who has a Dutch wife, told us what it is: "Postuurke van Den Blinde" or Parable of the Blind. THEN I was able to Google it and found out that it's based on the 1568 oil painting of Pieter Bruegel of the Parable of the Blind....depicting the blind leading the blind. The sculptor of this fountain in Brussels is Jos de Decker, and in this link, you can see how small it is.

The beauty of the Internet and of blogging is that the world really is at our fingertips! It just amazes me. Okay, yes, it's sometimes like the blind leading the blind, I know, but more often than not, you can find the information you want within hours, if not minutes!

BTW, if you wonder if I'm still alive or what's happening, please check me out at my SC site, where I am more faithful in posting. It doesn't give my whole life'e story but it does give you snippets of what's happening.

Now I will go check out YOU! I promise....

Hello and Good-Bye

Before we get too far away from Mother's Day....

Lucky me, I got to start the day with Nicholas because he was with me for a Saturday overnight. We awakened to a glorious, sunny day on Sunday and he asked, "G'ma, can we go out into the woods?"

You don't have to ask me twice! As I see him sitting in this new fallen tree (the old one was cut down), I see how much he has grown since our early days traipsing around. The traditions remain, like taking the blanket for lying down to just listen to the sounds...and sharing apple slices for our snack.

These are eternalized moments for me. As we were meandering around and exploring, looking for wild berries and burls, it dawned on me that this could very well be our last outing in the woods here. The house has not yet sold but it could be any day now.

So we talked about how special this place has been over the years and how many friends we have made. We never needed to name the trees (as my mom used to do at the family cottage). We just called them Friends.

What I will never forget more than anything is how Nicholas would find the tiniest of treasures and say "G'ma, take a picture of this!" It's like he, too, wanted to "eternalize" the moment.



It did come time to say Good-Bye. And we did. Funny thing is we weren't even that sad. We both just took it in stride and said "Thank You, Trees. Thank you, Friends."

Nicholas will be 9 in July. I'll be 64 in June. No matter what age, we criss-cross paths of comings and goings, of Hellos and Good-Byes. Passages of time. Moments of moving on.

And that particular moment we DID move on...to Amy's house to celebrate a fabulous day of "eternalized moments" with the larger family. Dennis had just arrived from LA on Friday to STAY...a one-way ticket! Before they celebrate their one-year anniversary on June 1, he is now here to live! Mark was with us, too, for cards and an incredible dinner cooked by Dennis and Nicholas. It was quite a memorable Mother's Day for me.

No sooner do we say Good-Bye to some friends, we get to say Hello to others. Good-Bye, woods. Welcome to Atlanta, Dennis. And Happy Mother's Day! I hope YOU had a great day, too.