Work from the Heart
I've had fun hanging at the hospital with my daughter and grandson. It's been a sweet time basking in the afterglow of a successful birth and healthy baby, relearning the rhythms of a newborn, and getting the last vestiges of sleep before we go home and real life begins. We've been blessed with some great nurses over these last couple of days, but two really standout. One walked my daughter through 20 hours of labor and the other cared for her, and Brody, on the other side of it. The reasons I'm singling them out are common to them both: Compassion. Empathy. Dedication. We expect nurses to be compassionate, I think. After all, their job is to care for people, and anticipate and meet...
Pass It On
He arrived, finally, my grandson. Brody Alexander, a tiny, but mighty little guy weighing in at a mere 6lbs 4oz, and measuring just 18.75 inches, brought with him the discovery that my daughter wasn't as far along as the doctors thought she was, about 3-4 weeks early! We were blessed, though, by the fact that he is healthy and required no extra attention, beyond that which everyone of us was itching to give. And that included one little two year old girl name Lilli, who has been waiting as anxiously as the rest of us for a glimpse of her little brother. When her daddy brought her in yesterday, and she saw her mommy, she ran in shouting "Mommy!" And ran straight to her, stopping when she...
On Waiting
It's early morning on St Patrick's Day, after a long day of waiting for my daughter's labor to progress. I'm sitting in the hospital labor and delivery while all the personnel go about their various jobs, getting my daughter ready to deliver my grandson. I missed the birth of my granddaughter by fifteen minutes (cross-country delayed flight...inept cab driver), so it's especially sweet to be here throughout the entire process and see a fresh little person, with some of my blood running through his veins, breathe his first. Babies require so much waiting, don't they? You wait (usually) to conceive. You wait the nine months for them to grow to term. Then, you wait hours to actually...
In the Quiet
I arrived in Florida yesterday afternoon, to stay for 3 weeks and help out when my grandson makes his grand arrival. I was greeted by my lovely daughter with a "thank God you made it in time" hug and then a "what took you so long" embrace from her own darling daughter. It was a beautiful afternoon of chattiness and play and love. Now, I'm up before anyone else, in a dark, quiet house. This is a house that's typically quite full of sound, with its resident two year old and all of her accompanying noise. You factor in some Barney in the background, or a little Backyardigans, and possibly some toy noise, and you end up with a whirl of happy chaos. So, in the quiet, I'm realizing sounds...
On a Clear Day
We are blessed to have some really great views out here on our ranch. We sit up on a hill, so there are vistas to the west and to the north in which you can really get lost. We have a swing in which we like to sit on mild evenings and talk about the day, as we gaze out, making it a favorite place of mine to reconnect with both my husband, and with my surroundings and the One who created them. Yesterday, I was walking back to the house from the mailbox and glanced to the west. It was a beautiful day, about 70 degrees and clear blue skies. I stopped to take it in, a view that went on and on, sharp and crisp, and that old song popped into my head. On a clear day...you can see forever... And...