Dear Reader:

While you are reading this…we are into our second day in Maine…we have several planned spots (on our itinerary to visit)…but we have decided to just let the stars, metaphorically, guide us. If something catches our “eye” we might just detour and head that direction. It is such a feeling of freedom to let nature guide us and not time.

Grandmother Wilson, while consoling any of us grandchildren, used to say to us that she wanted to see that “twinkle”  back in our eyes again. Don’t we all want to see that in  our loved ones? The “twinkle” of fun, mischievous secrets, or just a revelation of someone’s love for life twinkling  through their “windows to the soul.”

In the favorite classic childhood nursery rhyme, “Twinkle, twinkle little star…how I wonder what you are“…Don’t we still wonder why some people never lose their “twinkle” for life as evident through their twinkling eyes?

“What” is in some people’s stars in their eyes that make others smile just looking at them?”

Poppy, always comes to mind, when I think about twinkling eyes…he had the cutest twinkle in his beautiful blue eyes…like he knew something that was especially funny and he just might let us in on it…or he might not…

I vaguely remember an old legend Grandmother Wilson told us at bedtime about the connection between eyes and stars. I can’t exactly remember how it went…but this poem I found the other day comes pretty close to the central idea.

“You’re a Special Person in God’s Eyes” 

Desiree Derosier-Kaczor

On the day you were born…

God held the stars

within His hands

And watched as they twinkled

and shined.

He tried to find two

of the best He observed, 

But He couldn’t quite make up

His mind.

Then suddenly two of them

danced in the air;

And the rest of them

took to the skies.

On the day you were born,

You were blessed with the stars

that were chosen

To shine in your eyes.

…………………………………………………..

As much as I would love to prolong every minute of this adventure the reality is …that in the “twinkling of an eye” it will all be over. (The adventure…but never the memories.)

So instead of always randomly snapping photos…it is important to stop and take mental images of the sights I fall in love with…accompanied by the smell, taste, and touch of the moment. The five senses, associated with new sights, cements our sweet memories permanently inside our hearts and minds.

So until tomorrow…We must never forget that the past beats inside each of us like a second heart…let’s plant good memories from the past for the future days of remembering.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh