A few wee years ago…

Our eldest was born on a Saturday evening after having spent Friday night asleep (there are some lucky moms in this world – I was twice – as both my sons were born on Saturday nights after daytime labor and I proceeded to sleep after their births as well).

He had all the pertinent parts, thrived and now is, in turn, a father himself.

Feet seem to be a thing in our family so instead of the usual newborn baby picture here is the one that most impressed family and friends alike and led to my insisting that his son also have his footprints taken.

All the best my son.

A few wee years ago…

I gave birth to my first son.

Where have the years flown – I can still remember every detail of that day!

I started having mild pains mid-morning, but by early afternoon with my mother and husband asking every 10 minutes if I didn’t think it was time to go, I went simply to get them off my back. This meant that I had time for all the joys of prep, which I won’t detail here, only to say that the prep was worse than the experience of giving birth.

My husband actually accompanied me into the birthing room (had to look that one up as I knew it as the “salle d’accouchement”) and kept well to my head. He was extremely lucky as the nurse on duty was Austrian so she could explain it all to him in German. She was also very kind as seeing that I was going to deliver soon, she stayed on the extra half-hour after her shift was up and was there when the baby arrived. At one point during the rather short process, I allowed that that was enough, we could stop now and I’d come back and finish the next day. It’s true, the pain (all 10 minutes of it in my case) is soon forgotten, the joy remains a lifetime.

This year the joy is augmented by the fact that this son is, in turn, awaiting his first baby – another boy.

 

10 days old

Where does the sun shine?

Certainly not anywhere that I have been recently.

Oh yes, we have had the odd hour, the even less seldom day, but in general gray reigns supreme throughout Europe. I took a 6-hour train ride from Geneva, Switzerland to Stuttgart, Germany Saturday and it rained the whole way! There was a 10-minute bit of blue sky early Sunday morning, then back to the gray.

To the point that even I am starting to miss the sun: if I say “even I” that is because the main reason that I returned to Europe way back when was because I was tired of seeing the sun every day! I know, I know, many of you find that hard to understand, but once I had known seasons I missed them. In Southern California there are many advantages weather-wise, but seasons aren’t one of them.

Still the lack of sunshine is starting to wear even on my nerves.

Two things alleviate that: the weekend trip to Stuttgart, Germany to celebrate the 80^th birthday of one of my husband’s university friends and the short movie I received this morning from a friend in California.

I had a moment of epiphany: where is the sun?

In the laughs of my friends; in their eyes when we share memories that go back 45 years; in their remembrance of my husband, their friend, who has been gone now for 18 years, but who lives on in their thoughts; the sun lives in the hearts of my friends whether those of long date or those recently met. The sun lives in love – that I have received, that I have given. The sun lives in the smiles of those I encounter every day.

Although I would like the physical sun to shine a tad more than it has been doing, I’ll take the friend’s sunshine any and every day to lighten the darker corners of my mind.

another year, another storm