a different kind of busy

My first Monday off for the summer began at 3am with a nearly 8 hour round trip drive to pick my dear grandma (mamau, that is) up from the train station and bring her back home to stay with us for the week.  (lots of coal and sawdust keep the rails closer to home busy, but sadly there is currently no commuter rail out here in western NC.... there is a demand though, so hopefully things will change)

Monday afternoon brought naps for all and since then we've been a different kind of busy around here.

Busy reading.  Lots and lots of that.

Busy cooking and talking, connecting and watching, sitting and listening.  Playing.

Busy drinking coffee.  (strong and black for her, strong with cream for me) Busy drinking tea.  (earl grey straight up for her, the same with milk and honey for me)  Busy being overwhelmed with joy as I planted beans yesterday and watched as Claire sat happily in her great-grandmother's lap, 73 years but not an inch between them, being read to and laughing in the sunshine.  That was one of those moments.  One of those store-away-in-the-mind-for-a-gloomier-day kind of moments.  I am trying to be ever so present in those moments, so as to give them a better chance at being absorbed deep into my bones.

Because I think life is truly about those moments more than it is about anything else.  Sure, there are other important things.  Even other very important things.  But really, those moments are what fill us up and carry us through, I do believe.

I look at my grandmother's hands, her face, her smile..... and I see my hands, my face, my smiles to come.  We get each other.  And I am so thrilled to be getting Claire in on the action.  The joy of knowing and loving this fabulous and honest salt-of-the-earth woman that I so love.  Because she's going to get it too, I know.

And now, I am off to fill the next several days with this new and lovely kind of busy.  A most important kind of busy that I am deeply grateful to be able to experience and linger in.