Okay, enough ranting and raging over poisonous dysfunction!

I bet y’all are heaving a big sigh of relief.

I came home to see this bit of goodness and love here under the Big Top.

And this too.

Awww!!!

My daughter, Jodie has a sweet tooth and a crazy hunger after hours of dance practice every day that can sometimes only be satisfied with a little bit of late night baking and gnoshing of the results of said baking. But knowing that the two favorite men in her life have the same kind of crazy hunger and a sweet tooth (even if they didn’t have hours of dance practice) and are fast asleep during her late night baking sessions, she always saves a little bit of sweet, chocolate love for them.Yes, she sets aside some for me too.

Isn’t that just so sweet?

It is.

I am so lucky to be living with such sweet love. But she isn’t the the only one. There’s Daniel with his sweet, warm smiles and hugs that he greets me with every single morning. I wish that I could bottle up that and share it with the world because it is indeed something that this messed up planet could use…along with a few of Jodie’s chocolate chip cookies.

Abby always has tales of adventure with her friends to share and lately she is starting to share a little bit more. I love how the angst, anger and suspicion that comes with being a teen fades slowly away to reveal the awesome human being that is your child. I learned with my first born (the hard way of course) to just be patient and wait for the brittle, protective shell of adolescent to break away and fall off of your child, now a wonderful, young adult. It’s happening again…slowly…but surely.

While I couldn’t be prouder of Zoë and the dreams and adventures she is pursuing down in LA, I miss her. It’s true, I miss her a lot. I miss seeing my Zoë every day so much that it hurts. Don’t cry, Zoë. But I am so grateful for the fact that while she is off making her own life and adventures, she is always connected to us here back under the Big Top. Hurray for internets and Skype and Amtrak!

Then there is Hollie. I learned so much from Hollie and together we have come through the adventures and experimentation that is learning how to be a parent and raise that first child without a how-to guide that they should have come with. What an extraordinary woman she has become…because of or in spite of me…you decide. Thanks to her, I get to enjoy the love of three more: Hazel, Ben and Fallon.

And of course there is Bill, my darling husband, Bill. The man who, through the years, has made me see so much goodness and worth in me and the man who figured out and showed me how to block the crazy that was blowing up my phone and breaking me down.

I am surrounded by so much love, so much patience, so much kindness and so much goodness here under the Big Top.

Lucky?

Yes.

Yes I am.