Dear Reader:

Wednesday while I was waiting to be called back for my doctor appointment I started walking around the waiting room looking at all the new beautiful paintings that now covered the walls. There were paintings, of all medium, on display in cancer centers around the country.

The artists were family members, caregivers, friends,  medical staff, or the cancer patients themselves. I felt myself being drawn back to this watercolor painting called Lynn’s Meadow. It only labeled the artistic ownership as a family member, friend or caregiver.

It was the colors in the paintings that drew me to it…particularly the yellows and pinks sneaking into the meadows that seemed to be teeming with life and promise. There was a little description at the bottom that said:

“My cancer journey can best be described as feeling helpless, wishing I could do more for family and friends. I painted a meadow with the sun rising or was it setting? There is no right or wrong interpretation. It is how you feel when you think back on your cancer journey.”

I love sunrises and sunsets equally because to me both promise a new day, the completion of a day, and a promise of another to come.

I remember thinking when the family was celebrating Lachlan’s birthday on St. Patrick’s Day at the River House that the sun setting over the Wando River amid the laughter of little children making smores was about the best life could get.

The nice thing about sunrises and sun settings is that we don’t have to choose one over the other…God gave us two, I think, for a reason. He wanted us to know that just like the sun will rise and set each day…He will never desert us but promise to be with us always. The way I look at it…we are covered better than any insurance company I know. (And the premiums are free!)

Yesterday I went over to see some of the changes Mandy and John are making in their house, one so John can find a space to work on his computer, in the evenings,  somewhere beside the kitchen counter. Not only had they found and fixed up a place but it gave Mandy the “bug” to start making some other changes around the house.

Nothing big but just enough to make you feel a sense of accomplishment and a feel of  “newness” to the same-old. We had fun yesterday shopping around for bargains that Mandy could fix or re-design at cut-rate costs. A mother-daughter shopping adventure.

I told Mandy that I was becoming her, not the other way around the older I get. I can’t stand clutter anymore, though when I was young it didn’t bother me at all. I have come to realize that there is a direct link between real clutter around the house and clutter in my thoughts. I can think more clearly when I am not surrounded by clutter but have items organized and in place.

Mandy has always been organized and a minimalist…now I am slowly evolving in that direction…step by step and inch by inch. (I think the line should end in a cinch but believe me…getting organized (at least for me) is NOT a cinch. It is tough, grind it out work!

But maybe by my (and Jakie’s birthday) on the 24th of September I will have something to celebrate….a home clean of old useless clutter…time will tell.

Photo of last year’s celebration with John, Mandy, and I leaving for the Oaks to meet up with the rest of the family.

So until tomorrow….

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Mandy cleaned off all the shelves in the den and replaced everything with a selection of pictures, books, bottles, and shells. I kept Jakie playing in his room to give Mandy some time to think through everything and get it placed and put up. (Of course Eva Cate wanted to be a “helper.”)