Burning Down the House...

A sudden early morning phone call and my whole focus changed today in an instant. My former home is but a blackened broken mess of what it once was..burned away by one careless act. My family and I moved into this house in 1976 and lived there for 22 years..an entire generation plus a bit more. Children were raised there, a marriage struggled and after valiant efforts too numerous to recount... died there. So many dreams were born there...some realised, some fallen by the way...some blossomed into so much more than one's mind can fathom. So many memories flooding me today I can hardly count them. Birthdays, Christmas's, graduation receptions, Easter bunnies, countless cats, kittens, fish, turtles, gerbils that disappeared into the mystery of night (never to be seen again), a rat named Andre, various wild animals rescued and nurtured there... a glassblowing husband becoming a true artist, a woman coming into her own as a successful business owner. I remember an incredibly busy woman longing of having a little "resort" in her back yard...a month later...almost the entire back yard tranformed into an in ground pool of laughing splashing children ....strange unexplained noises heard almost nightly within the walls of the house for 22 years and no one ever figured out.for sure what made them...Children entering the threshold of adulthood and venturing out into the adult world to seek their destinies …two parents struggling with the loneliness of an empty nest and the realization that their relationship was winding down to the sad truth of separate paths being necessary and inevitable. As I write this a full range of emotional thoughts flood...many joyous,..many sweet,.many humourous…some bitter, some sad, and some regretful. Experiences in that house transformed us in part into who and what we are today.

I guess we turn the pages of our lives, finish chapters and move on but we never completely close the book on our past. The memories are forever burned into special places in our hearts...even when present events burn out the shellof the physical we always remain tied to where we came from.

another reptilian friend I met last summer on the banks of the St. Croix river..

A Leap of..Nature..?

It's Friday afternoon..the air is thick with both stifling humidity and the anticipation of what the weekend ahead will bring. A trip to the grocery store for pop yielded it's usual $100.00 worth of additional items (sigh..). Suddenly up the hilly driveway zooms a shiny black Mustang, it's driver grinning from ear to ear like a true Cheshire cat. He leaps out of the car with more than a usual spring in his step. He calls me over from grocery hauling to see what he has brought me. He points to the windshield wiper which lies flat in its usual position. I see nothing, then he suddenly cups something tiny, green and slightly slimy and opens his large hand to reveal none other than the return of Todias, the mystery toad. It seems this delicate creature appeared clinging perilously to the inside of the car door early this morning (5:20 am). Running late, Kev chose not to address this situation. So Todias rode the entire 26 miles to kev's workplace, hung out all day with the Mustang, then leaped one spectacular jump to the windshield and took the more thrilling ride home perched within the wiper blade. This would not seem so unusual had it not been for for an earlier reptilian appearance weeks earlier. I have no doubts whatsoever that this must be the same tiny toad that I found quivering in the watering can that sat inside my dining room all winter. Mind you, it's a mystery as to how this hopping wonder came to exist at all in my house after a long Minnesota winter (perhaps immaculate conception??). Anyway..I promptly named him To(a)dias and let him go in the backyard after a week of exquisite care on the kitchen counter.

It's nice to see he had quadrupled in size, but sadly his shyness remains intact. Nature finds a way..doesn't it?

Check back for the hopefully continuing (and heartwarming) story of Todias, the immaculate wonder toad. Picture to follow at a later date...

Don't you love those special moments in time that become sweet little memories we can fall back on? Especially during those times when the present is not so great? A breathtaking view of the Chicago skyline bathed in the soft light of a crescent moon at 3:30 am....Lightning during a storm that completely lights up one's world for an instant..A tiny baby's warm snuggle..a spouse's wink across
a crowded room..a 3 year old's hand caressing your face with the words "I'm going to be upset when you go home, Gramma!"..an oblivious little granddaughter dancing with her dolly in perfect time to the music..a troubled son roaring with laughter for the first time in recent memory...an overjoyed cat leaping into my arm's upon my return home after a three day trip. Each day has it's own treasures if we only open our eyes and see..how blessed we truly are.