marching forward

This month continues to march forward.  She marches head-first today into spring.  Last week she marched me into a new decade. A week before that, she marched snow down a ravine, shook us into a whole new level of awareness.



I've always loved this month.  The way she welcomes a new season.  The way my birthday coincides  with the return of all things warm, all things light.  My blessings seem everywhere.  My friends showered me with love on my birthday, sang me my favorite songs, created ceremony and circles and reflection.  The children sat on Joellen's hard-wood floor, a picnic blanket between them, while their parents shared words and toasts at the table. 

After dinner the children joined us for music, Solan and Cyrus playing a sweet rendition of, "Happy Birthday" on their guitars.  To really bring it home, Joellen and Casey rewrote the words to the 80's classic, Foreigner's, "Your Love," a forty year rendition all about my wacky life.  That was followed up by, "Seasons of Love" and then Yaz's, "Only You."  Absolutely perfect picks.   I was a soppy pool at that point, floating above the scene in dreamy disbelief.  I felt so wholly loved.  It was the very best birthday present in the world.

 Much revelry continued and will, continue.  I read my poems again at a local bookstore, saw my words move someone to tears, felt confident and took my time as I honored those I love so much, a piece for each -- my sister, my mom, my children, Brandon.  Jeff and I sat across from one another afterwords and had a quiet, candlelit moment of appreciation for all that we have, all the history that has suddenly found us, me back to writing poems a sort of full-circle. 

On Saturday my girlfriends and I packed a bevvy of canvas bags filled with chocolate and wine, books and boots, and headed to Kay's cabin to carry on the celebration.  Kay's birthday is the day after mine -- so fun to share my Pisces splendor with someone who I love so much.  I felt so grounded with these women, so safe, so content.  At one point I looked around at them all and sort of marveled at how artistic, how intelligent, how fun, how solid they all are.  I am surrounded by love.

But tonight, the love is right here, right at home.  Jeffy's away for a long weekend so the kids and I are settling into our little style.  Tonight during books this one little page had the kiddos in hysterics.  They wanted me to keep going back to read it again and again.  Soli's laugh was guttural, deep, and Eliana and I were laughing both at the book and in celebration of this little boy.  Eliana looks huge these days, wise and wacky.  She lost her front tooth last week and has this massive gap-toothed smile, her hair long and wild down her back, her colors vibrant and all her own.  Solomon's brilliance continues to show-through, his mind wild with connections, his Spanish soaring.  Today I stood outside his classroom during my recess break.  I had a perfect view of him at his little center, sitting next to Adriana as she explained to him how a measuring tape worked.  He was so focused, so enthralled.  I then meandered across the hall and went into Eliana's quiet room, the kiddos busy outside on the playground.  I looked at her artwork, her handwriting on the walls.  I thought about how absolutely comfortable she is in that space, how proud she is to be herself. 

I've been feeling that same way.  It's a pretty splendid place to be.