Dear Reader:

I have always found William Blake’s poetry hauntingly beautiful…many of his analogies leave me with “wonderosity“…a mixture of wonder and curiosity. (another new word to add to our list!)

The passion flower is the state flower of Tennessee and grows in wild clusters along the state’s highways and by-ways. Spain’s color palette version of this beautiful flower leans towards a deep-blue orientation… but once again this wild vine can be found throughout the country in isolated, sometimes rugged terrain.

And to all who see it…this vine… so full of religious history and intricacy in its bloom… truly appears to be “Heaven in a wildflower.”

Yesterday when I went to check on the passion flower vine… to see if any more buds had popped open…I thought that a butterfly had gotten one side of its wing caught in the fence slab where the passion flower vine is growing.

Upon closer inspection…it was a leaf that had fallen and gotten wedged in the fence. The beauty of this scene simply stunned me in its simplicity and divinity. Or as William Blake would say: “I am in you and you in me, mutual in divine love.”

It would be another quote from William Blake in a young adult’s novel that would change my thoughts on birth and death…but especially on living life to the fullest.

The year was 2009…it had been a tough year since being diagnosed with “little c” in May of 2008. In that short span of time I had already had two surgeries, a round of chemo, and started radiation.

Anne had just returned from Ireland and brought me a gift…a book…called Skellig. I remember that we were at the Mustard Seed (sure do miss that restaurant) and she was trying to tell me about this children’s book ….but it is a difficult story to re-tell.

Just a very short synopsis…A little boy named Michael finds an emaciated-looking  creature in the garage of their new home who appears to be part human, part owl, and part angel.

Michael soon discoversanother new friend in a nine-year old neighbor named Mina who, also meets the “creature”… now calling himself “Skellig.”

Mina is home-schooled. Nature, birds, drawing and the poems of William Blake interest her. She takes care of some baby birds who live in her garden and teaches Michael to hear their tiny sounds. She, too, sometimes seems to be a special child of the universe who has a way with all God’s creatures.

The story evolves around these three main characters and their evolving relationship. There is quite a dramatic ending with Skellig’s dream-like appearance manifesting its spiritual presence… to save the child who scatters death.

The book was fascinating and one night after finishing the novel…I looked up the term “skellig” and  discovered the Skellig Cliffs …located off of Dingle Peninsula. Skellig Michael ( the larger island) houses a 1400 year old monastery…but one must climb 600 steps to the top to see it…which the monks back then had to climb daily for penance.

(Last summer in Ireland) Anne and I decided to take a “raincheck” on that grueling challenge but we did see the rocks of “Little Skellig” while on our tour of Dingle Peninsula.

*Little did I know when I called Anne that night in 2009 (after finishing the book) to tell her of the Dingle connection to “Skellig” that I would one day do just that…go to Ireland with her and see the very spot I had read about…years earlier.

It was soon after reading this novel that John and Mandy announced the happy news that they were expecting… at a family cook-out at their house in August, 2009.

I remember bursting into tears…I never thought I would live long enough to see a grandchild…in November we got more happy news that it was a little girl…followed by her birth in April 27, 2010.

…And little did I know that I would get to “have my cake and eat it too”…with three more grandchildren (all boys) following in the “queen’s” wake…and I could just “eat’em all up!” 

It was that summer of 2010 (following Eva Cate’s arrival) that I first went to the Chapel of Hope with Honey and wrote the verse (from the book Skellig) down on the back of a photo of me, Mandy and Eva Cate to leave behind on the “altar”…a quote I had memorized by William Blake

Each of my grandchildren have given me the strength to keep  fighting for life…because they are my life!

Welcome to my life….my compass for living…my north, south, east, and west of eternity!

So until tomorrow…God…thank you for giving me the most precious gift of all…TIME to watch my grandchildren grow.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* I think some little birds have been busy transporting seeds…look what sprang up in my garden yesterday? A beautiful “althea” bloom off some hibiscus bush somewhere! A wonderful God’s Wink! (Thanks Doodle for the “title.”)

* Mandy at five and Eva Cate at five…the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree. (Eva Cate (L) and Mandy (R)

The Enchanted Bench.…Before I know it… Eva Cate will outgrow this little bench… and later all my “boys”… but I hope they never outgrow their love of magic, imagination, and enchantment!