Dear Family and Friends,
Deep, heavy rain has permeated Northern Indiana for days...and days. I peer out onto my lawn of dandelion spikes knowing my mower is tucked into the garage...just waiting. On occasion I put on my boots, pick up my umbrella and head to town to talk about the rain. "Can you believe this weather? And on Mother's Day week end?

I heard it's to rain until Wednesday. Wednesday? It is too bad I planted my garden. It is too bad I didn't plant my garden. Did you walk to town? You could get struck by lightning, you know. Ahh, this coffee tastes great today." I smile and walk back home...taking my chances with lightning.

gray silent raindrops
cascade off metal gutters
lamenting tulips
swirling maple seeds
cool, green canopies
weep with loneliness
kick off your old boots
prop up your damp umbrella
come on in for tea

Throughout this dark, rainy week, joy creeps in under the door...in small packages. Let me share a few glimpses of these vignettes from the week.

This week was Teacher Appreciation week at school. Each day our PTO (remember those organizations?) placed a container on our desks for the children to fill them up in the morning. One day was a container for pencils....by morning it was overflowing with markers and pencils and erasers...small tokens from small hands. Another day a large white bowl was placed on our desks and the children were to fill it with chocolate. (Could this be our favorite day??) No, not even chocolate was the favorite day. A large glass vase was placed on our desks on Wednesday for flowers.....as the busses pulled in and small parcels of children began to fill the hall, it was obvious that they loved flower day as well...they carried sacramental offerings of flowers....tulips, from their gardens, wrapped in paper towels...pepsi cans of lilacs...fists full of the last of the dandelions...It was a lovely site.

This week was the culmination of a fourth and fifth grade project that has taken a great deal of time and work...our Sonnet-a-thon...a tribute to William Shakespeare. We had a reception in my room for guest readers (from around the community)...complete with a chocolate fountain and trays of cookies. (I was a bit on the nervous side...as of Thursday morning all that had arrived were large Styrofoam plates (why large???) a package of napkins and ten pounds of sugar. (We never used the sugar.) The program was a success with a program depicting the life of Shakespeare, ten year olds introducing our readers...and the Interpretative dance of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet by the Fifth grade. It was, what my grandmother would have called, a red letter day.

My friend Marilyn has three daughters...all of which chose to be married this year. For each wedding my house is her designated bed and breakfast. I like having folks here...sleeping under my roof...sharing the morning coffee. When they left this morning a small offering was placed on my kitchen counter...a gift certificate to Rachel's, my favorite coffee shop!
Small, unexpected surprises...tucked under the door.

That is how I remember Mother's Day. I don't remember buying anything grand for my Mom...maybe a coffee mug once with small blue flowers painted on it with the words Happy Mother's Day. Usually, it was a gift from school...my handprint or a marigold in a paper cup...or a note under her pillow. When I was naughty or ornery, I would slip my Mom a note under her pillow to apologize. If I would have kept that up as an adult, she would have an entire box full of apologies......or are they? Would I apologize for growing up...moving away...becoming obsessively independent? And my own three sons....have they not done the same? I often ask myself if this is a gift or a curse?

We all are somewhere else most of the time. My Mom in Texas with my Dad and their two Texas children and grandchildren....Abe in Portland with Kristin's Mom today...Aaron and Karen in Atlanta with Karen's Mom...Adam visiting them also celebrating with them...my sister and her husband spending today on the ferry touring the Straits of Messina, that is in Italy. Another sister and brother in Colorado.

We are not having dinner together. I am not wearing a corsage (those of you who know me well will know that I wouldn't anyway!)....but we are thinking of each other.

The biggest gift my mother gave to me...still gives to me is letting me go to become who I need to become...that is the gift I give my sons as well.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom, thank you for this gift...I use it well.
Next week end I will be with my folks in Texas...not for Easter or Mother's Day...just to visit, talk, have dinner together...a raise our glasses high...a toast...simply to life.
Lou Ann

"I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me."
Anna Quindlen

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