First Day

 "This is the first day of my life..." 

I set my alarm to that old Bright Eyes song and slept somewhat fitfully last night, anticipating today - the day I start something new. 

I am going to school. 

I enrolled in college a few times when I was married, but 'mysteriously', before the first day ever rolled around, we needed to move or I needed to take a part-time job to help make ends meet. 

So, I never made it to school, though I was able to take a few online classes. 

Today marks the first day in a life I am choosing, a new direction that- crash or sail- I am happy to be living. 

I never realized how isolation worked until I was free to build community, how innocuous the actions of a fence-builder can seem.

 "I've just got too much work to do, we can't visit  " and "We're our own little family, let's make new traditions together, just ourselves." is hardly sinister, until it is an enforced way of life. 

That is to say, going to a family funeral should never result in your spouse changing the locks or threatening divorce.  Love does not imprison its intended. 

If isolation is your reality, I'm waving my light from shore; there is freedom and I hope you find it. 

For me, that was then. But, this is today, the day I am going to school. 

And I am happy.

How Marvelous

Softly, from the backseat, as we pulled away from the little wooden chapel in the wildwood,  I heard my ten year old singing: 

"How marvelous, how wonderful ..."

As if she realized I was listening to her, she said "I didn't know all the words to that song" 

So I pulled it up on Spotify and we sang or way home. 

~*~

Now she is planning a concert in the park. As soon as tomorrow, if the weather allows, but someday this week, at the very latest. She doesn't want to miss her chance she says, because her week with the parent who can be talked into such adventures (me)  will soon be past. 

She thinks she will add her new favorite, 'How Marvelous' to her song list.

"Maybe if I sing it a little more rock-and-roll-ish to match my style? "  she wonders aloud

I smirk at the irony she can't see and pull a more contemporary version of " I Stand Amazed (How Marvelous)" up on Spotify. 

'Hey, they stole my idea!' she says, as she sings along with Shane and Shane anyway. 

."... and my song shall ever be... how marvelous, how wonderful, is my Savior's love for me." 

Indeed.

I'll take the singing heart of my child in any style. See? 

Rafter Cats

A few weeks ago, I discovered 7 newborn kittens on my back porch. 

Last week, I discovered mangled fur and that their box had been moved. 

My aunt disposed of the remains- so mangled a count was not possible, but it appeared all were lost.

Today, I discovered 5 kittens, tucked safely in the rafters above where their original box had been. 

One tumbled, uninjured, from it's high tower. 

We extracted the other kittens and now, reunited, they await whatever plan we come up with to get them fed and keep them safe until they're big enough to... fly the nest.