God's Blanket

My Daughter in Law, Joanna

It all seems like a dream now, hugging my loved ones, playing with my grand-children....I'm back home now. I don't want to write about my trip back to New York right now because I'm in bed sick with some kind of bug. I slept day and night when I got home, had one good day, then last night I felt the virus coming on. I'm kind of delirious and frozen and everything feels strange and still, but my mind is warm, especially with the memory of the day with my son and his family.

Penny and Blue Bear

I slept with the window open at my brother's home and woke up with back spasms and a tweaked neck. Most of the trip I was medicated and in pain but my grand-daughter was my little angel. She not only looks like an angel but she has the heart of one. We bonded like two kindred-spirits that knew each other in another realm in a land of fairies. Her tiny hands would grab onto mine and we seemed to know exactly what the other one needed. Her and I are both talkers and we love not only to share stories, ideas and discoveries but we both love to listen to each other and validate one an other's souls and spirits. The first day I was there, her and I disappeared upstairs and played in my bedroom window sill for three hours and never stopped talking. It was amazing and for the first time in a long time, my cup overflowed. I felt full, understood, loved, cherished and needed.

I usually don't have much to give as far as energy and that leaves me always feeling inadequate around others, with Penny though, I felt that that was all she needed. Just someone who stayed with her and talked and listened (for hours)! Of course her mom and dad need to work and have a schedule but Penny is like me...she has a lot to say and with my health problems, I'm the perfect companion for long term talk-a-thons!  The quaint thing is that's all I need too, ask my friend Gloria, we could talk to each other as a full-time job! The second day was my brother's birthday party and Penny and I just worked the crowd, as our personality types usually do. Our energy levels go through the roof when we are around people, which is typical of extroverts.

Abram Lee

The next day I got to spend the whole day at my sons house with him, his wife Joanna, Penny and Abram my grand-son. Abe self occupies himself so Penny and I went into her closet (which her mom fixed up as a princess tower) and spent over an hour looking at her stuff and going through a toy magazine filled with princess stuff! I don't mean we just checked it out, I'm talking about scanning and analyzing every mi nut detail! After that we moved to her bed and lay on her stuffed animals and talked about HOW MUCH SHE LOVES JESUS and how she just loves the blue bear I sent her! We laughed and giggled, sharing our thoughts and dreams while we lay facing each other almost nose to nose. My daughter in law was baking in the kitchen and asked us if we wanted to watch a movie in the living room. Of course we did, so we took our stuffed animals and cuddled up on the couch. Joanna covered us up like two little kids and put on, Hello Kitty Snow White! I said that the only thing that could make it better was chocolate and the great mom Jojo is, she showed up with peanut butter cups for us!

Nani Ooch and Penny

It sounds strange, being that I'm 53 years old but I felt like a little girl and I liked it. I had missed so much because my mom was ill for so long and then died when I was thirteen. I also was fighting the pain in my body during my vacation which made me more soft and in need of some loving. Joanna is such a great mom and I have to admit that I milked every minute of it! After the movie she called us in the kitchen for lunch and she made these incredible tuna sandwiches and gathered her family around the table as we broke bread together (I'm crying right now). The fact is that I may be the mom and grand-mom but that day I needed my son and his family. I needed to hear my son in the background playing his guitar because it felt familiar and safe, I needed to be hugged and kissed by little Abe who doesn't give his affections to many people, I needed to be mothered by Joanna and I especially needed to be loved by Penny with her beautiful open heart! I know that I gave too...because a piece of my heart feels like it's been torn off and left back there.

Abe and Penny

Yes, I'm back home now and my body is sick, but I will never forget that day. God covered that home with love, grace, peace and healing. He covered the sun with clouds and made it an unforgettable Autumn day, just perfect for cuddling in! And He covered the broken little girl in me, with a blanket from my daughter in law. There is a safe, warm spot in my heart where I can always go to be with them even when we're apart. Remember those rainy days when your mom would give you full reign of the house and you would take chairs, then cover them with blankets to make a fort? That's what I pictured God doing that day. It just doesn't get better than that, everyone you love under God's blanket, just loving on one another!