Dear Reader:

Aren’t we guilty of wanting to be the first one out of the gate some days, accompanied by our big to-do list…only to discover that God’s list doesn’t always resemble ours? His priorities take precedence over our narrower scope of daily activities or chores?

I can already feel it in my bones…this summer is going to fly by…regardless of what we do or don’t do…the only control we have over our most formidable opponent, time, is in the choices we make filling that time… from start to finish.

As much as I hate to see metaphors depicting life as a race…it certainly feels that way more often than not. School was officially out last Friday, June 1 for most students. I attended Rutledge’s pre-school graduation last Thursday evening and then I returned to Mt. Pleasant to John and Mandy’s house Sunday for instructions on getting Eva Cate and Jakie up, dressed, breakfast, and out the door early yesterday (Monday) morning with lunches, swim suits, towels and medicines….Jakie to pre-school (thanks Katie for helping out on that drop-off) and me taking Eva Cate to day camp.

I am the first shift in the “child-caring village” to keep the children this week. Then Katie, their babysitter, and then the other grandparents will come and take them to Isle of Palms to finish off the week. Tommy and Kaitlyn will take care of Tigger.

John and Mandy left (before 5 a.m. Monday morning) to catch their plane to Jamaica! This is where they went on their honeymoon and now they are celebrating their tenth anniversary! They will be gone a few days! Ten years ago…the wedding and weeks later my cancer diagnosis….what an amazing decade this has been.

This time around they are staying at the Goldeneye Resort with James Bond beach adjacent to it. I texted Mandy and John and told them they were hobnobbing with the “rich and famous” from my research on the place (for a few days anyway! 🙂

*Here are some celebrities who have stayed there from the Trivia Queen, me: Bono, Naomi Campbell, Michael Caine, Pierce Brosnan, Harrison Ford, Johnny Depp, Kate Moss,  and Richard Branson. (Sting wrote “Every Breath You Take” at Ian Fleming’s writing desk (author of the James Bond novels) while vacationing on the estate there in 1982.)

(Perhaps the popular adage about ‘it taking a village to raise a child’ should read “it takes a big family” -and sweet Katie, their favorite babysitter- to raise children and dogs.’)

So when it comes to the dogs and their care….Tommy and Kaitlyn come into play. They will keep Tigger so he can romp with his cousins for part of the week.  (And speaking of play they both came over Sunday afternoon and got in the pool with the children tossing them in the air (to their excited squeals of pleasure- Tommy I hope you aren’t down, too badly, in the back today).

Tommy and Kaitlyn also came bearing gifts from Ireland. They brought John and Mandy some Irish “drink” and me some Irish “Dingle” shoes I had admired so much on Kaitlyn, as well as, Irish memoir trinkets. Too sweet! Love it all!

As I have thought through the last two days…I realize that God has asked me to allot some unforeseen and/or unplanned time on several occasions to itineraries that weren’t on any check-off list….mostly dealing with little Eva Cate.

She was nervous about her first day of camp Monday morning because she didn’t know anybody going to this particular community camp. She grew increasingly nervous when it came time to go drop her off. I kept reassuring her that she would probably recognize  someone from the neighborhood or school…and if not make a new friend.

When I signed Eva Cate in…I saw a little girl, out of the corner of my eye, that I recognized from their neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt who had played with Eva Cate. I don’t know who was more relieved …Eva Cate or me as she ran over to join her friend.

I talked to the counselor and asked her to please try to keep Eva Cate and her friend together if possible on the road trips to the different events they would be experiencing this week. She smiled, nodded and made a note to do so. Eva Cate was smiling and laughing with several little girls when Katie (babysitter) picked her up.

However last evening as the sun was setting…poor little Eva Cate came down with  Boo’s childhood ailment… a really bad case of homesickness. (It was those old crickets and their “cricketing” that sent her over the top.) What is it about the time the sun goes down each day that is so bewitching? John and Mandy had called and were obviously concerned when they heard her crying so hard for them. Mandy texted me and asked if I would call and talk to her which I did.

I tried to use some humor and tell her about my own  homesickness experiences growing up and reassure her that what she was feeling was quite common…but that she needed to be a big girl and know that her mommy and daddy whole-heartedly deserve this wonderful get-away by themselves and that the best gift she can give them…the one that will make them the happiest is if she, too, remains happy and has a good time while they are gone. I told her that I knew she could do this for her mommy and daddy.

I got a text twenty minutes later from Kate…she was sound asleep.

I certainly hadn’t written this time in on my daily planner…but looking back on it…the time spent with Eva Cate, encouraging her, reassuring her… was the most satisfying time of the day…the most important. Yesterday was a chance to teach and hand down some life lessons that will hopefully stay with Eva Cate in her memory for a long time.

So until tomorrow…Sometimes getting out of the gate first isn’t as important as what happens at the end of the race…and what we did to make the world a little brighter or help someone else through a tough time.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*All it has taken is two days in the nineties with no rain and already the baskets and potted flowers are drooping. Tomorrow morning…out I go…it is time to water again. But how I love the little flowers that bloom in full sun and can withstand the intensity.