On the Threshold....

by

Patti Dickinson

As I hope some of you have noticed (smile) I have been floundering a bit with the blogging. Easter week saw this house packed to the rafters with my dad, recently widowed, my returning college kids, and my son and my granddaughter, coming up to go to Opening Day at the Royals. We had all eight kids home at the same time, which doesn't happen too frequently anymore.  So I left-it-all-behind --- the housework, the laundry, overseeing the science fair board, and the PTA stuff.  I cooked for a crowd again!  Just put a figurative sign out that said, "I am busy" and emitted those vibes to everyone who wasn't in the house. 

And the in-between was wonderful.  Lots of catching up (face it, those college kid stories are much better acted out, in real time, instead of emailed) laughing and reminiscing (I always learn something new during these conversations....usually something mischief-related.)  This time I learned that Kathleen and Mary Morgan are still having words about whether the tape was on too loud/soft and whether the fan was on too little/much. This is a going-on-fifteen year-battle from when they shared a room.  This was also the time that I learned that my daughter, Claire, told all her friends that her name was "Claire Annette" and that her grandfather was the inventor of the musical instrument of the same name.  

The goodbyes are always so agonizing.  I hold onto my departing kids just a bit longer than usual.  My dad is 82.  He doesn't walk with his confident stride anymore.  He sort of shuffles. He hangs onto the doorframe as he steps down the back step.  That brings tears.  And I will them back.  But the three kids who are standing there after Wood and my dad pull out of the driveway to go to the airport, know.  They know what I am thinking before I can say it.  They are nodding, heads cocked, ready to listen, hug, looking for me to take the lead.  And this is, indeed, the circle of life.  One day, it will be me, stepping carefully down the back step, as my kids and their kids watch. 

And four days later, my daughter Elizabeth delivers her second baby.  We keep Piper, kid #1 who is about to have her two year old world turned upside down by a seven pound screaming, demanding high maintenance sister!!   Standing in my daughter's hospital room, seeing the simultaneous glow of joy mixed with fatigue.  I see in her the ready-to-get-home-and-get-the-routine-figured-out impatience with the hospital rules.  And so it goes....new life, old life, both standing on thresholds.