Thank you, flowmom, anychance, rr22, Coach, Greek, fourleafclover, and mindfull, for your comments and support.
It was a wonderful day (pictures posted on the alt). The garden looked beautiful--especially so on this day. I had helped work on it as it was being created, but there was just something about how it looked that day that was perfect.
I'm bad at estimating, but I would say that about 60 or 70 people came.
A dear friend of my mother's was there to give the invocation, which was wonderful. He quoted St. Francis of Assisi and talked about service to others (my mother's service to others included). My older "brother" came and brought his wife, who has this amazing sense of peace about her. He brought a scrapbook that had a newspaper clipping my mother had cut out in 1977. It was a story with a picture about C boxing, and she had put in on the wall in the classroom for that entire school year. After the year ended, she gave it to him, and on Friday, he showed it to the gathered crowd. He described how much she supported him both in and out of school and what a powerful message it sent to him.
My younger "brother" spoke, and he did an outstanding job, too. He talked about my mother's willingness to help him with academic and personal needs, and he remembers most that, when he was her student in fifth grade, she always made sure that he had plenty to eat.
A colleague spoke for a few minutes about my mother's service to education, and then I spoke to deliver a great many thank yous. I thought I could hold it together (I'm not a weeper), but a few tears leaked out during the invocation. Older brother opened his mouth to speak, and the tears came a little more freely. Younger brother spoke, and I did the "hitching of the breath" thing. I also made the mistake of looking at others who were gathered there, and I felt so sorry that they were sad. Their crying made me want to cry, too.
The greatest surprise of all was that a child came to the garden dedication to support me. I was never this child's teacher (nor was my mother), but this girl adopted me as her "white mother" (her way of introducing me to others) about four years ago. It meant the world that she was there in addition to all the other special people.
There was a luncheon after the dedication, and I won a prize. It was a watering can filled with garden tools (red to match my other garden things), a bag of wildflower garden seeds, and a tomato starter kit. I'm not convinced this contest wasn't rigged--I won the GARDEN prize on the GARDEN dedication day. Even if it was rigged, I'm still grateful!
Okay--I've been serious for way too long. Back to telling the completely true and ridiculous stories of my everyday life events.
Exciting and busy weekend for me! I'm becoming goooooood at this GAL thing.
Friday morning: *played one five-minute quarter in an adult-versus-children basketball game; longest five minutes of my entire life *attended memorial garden dedication
Friday afternoon *hung out with friends in pleasant mid-70s sunshiny weather *OFFICIALLY BEGAN VACATION! *ate dinner with black best friend; always a good time to do that
Saturday: *attended laughter yoga with white best friend and 15-year-old half-brother. This warrants its own separate post for obvious reasons. *had brunch with laughter yoga friends; learned some interesting yet extreme New-Age views; also learned that I seem to be a good candidate for between-life-regression hypnotherapy, according to new New-Age acquaintance *shopped for new attire for Boxer dog's first giant dog club meeting on Sunday; purchased two lovely collars and coordinating leashes *did requested "white mother" duties and attended my child's basketball playoff game; ate junk food and had an Icee *enjoyed merriment and tomfoolery at a colleague's afternoon crawfish boil; made friends with a writer who has long known H (also warrants elaboration in another post) *made it home in time to have bottle of wine opened and ready for sister's arrival; sat in Adirondack chairs in front yard, sipped wine, and laughed and talked; after completion of bottle, decision was made to order Chinese delivery and watch SNL's Best of Will Ferrell (extremely sophisticated evening)
Sunday: *mowed lawn in blazing heat *attended child's other playoff game *carefully dressed Boxer dog for his first club meeting *drove Boxer dog to dog park; sat on bench and ate hot fudge sundae while Boxer dog frolicked and cavorted with new giant dog friends (pictures on the alt) *bought two new books at bookstore--and neither one is a self-help book!! *did more yard work *enjoyed leisurely evening of television, couch-sharing with utterly exhausted Boxer dog, and leftover Chinese
Where every 15-year-old boy should be on a Saturday morning
With white best friend and brother in tow, I attended another wonderful laughter yoga session. I didn't give brother full details until we were on the interstate and his chances of survival were limited should he choose to try to jump out of the car.
Summary of laughter yoga experience: *brother hesitant to go in room after he saw six adults already in there, chanting and clapping *first exercise--pretend to be a horse. Neigh loudly as you canter about to show your joy. Brother's head snapped hard in my direction. Can't believe he didn't give himself whiplash. *brother pranced and neighed. I had to stop and hold on to the wall so that I didn't fall down laughing *after first exercise ended, brother attempted to glare at me to show his displeasure but couldn't stop laughing long enough to look threatening *brother resistant to exercises that involved hugging and/or tickling others; brother unable to hide from enthusiastic laughter yoga devotees, however *brother unable to stop staring at one particular attendee who was being guided by a higher power during laughter yoga; brother uneasy with attendee's hand-waving and looks of rapture after each exercise *at conclusion of yoga, members of group invited everyone to breakfast/brunch at neighboring coffee shop; brother agreeable to breakfast but told me that I should pay for his (that was the least I could do for him, he said) *before leaving, one laughter leader spoke to the three of us about helping us with our spiritual and/or physical needs; brother visibly uncomfortable as laughter leader offered pamphlets outlining these services: Chinese/folk medicine, hypnotherapy (complete with information on how to meet spirit guide(s), receiving counsel from elder spiritual beings, and investigating past identities), and aqua chi or flower essence therapy services; brother clenched his jaws and shook his head at me as if I were going to make his appointments on the spot *brother made certain that he did not have to sit next to hand-waver/rapture-feeler at breakfast by making ME sit next to him *brother listened in disbelief as two of the group discussed the upcoming apocalypse, which requires that everyone consider getting a generator (they are expecting power outages) *in the car on the way home, I asked brother if he would like to go next time. He said, "Yeah, I guess." YES!! How did I get so lucky?? I only wish I could videotape it so that I could laugh myself silly through the week.
Do not let anyone talk you into "rebirthing" or anything. I suppose your work friends will keep you in line. LOL.
Black best friend would disown me forever if I even brought it up. White best friend has been trying to get me to consult a psychic for months and would likely encourage a rebirthing.
To be safe, I won't mention it to either one of them. I can't face the consequences of describing anything like this to them.
Sounds like a great weekend and a hopefully great summer to come. What is the turtle up to?
I am looking forward to an excellent summer. I hope to have much more excitement in the coming weeks.
Ah, the turtle. He's been busy sunning himself lately. It's about time to clean the aquarium, so he'll have some freedom while I do that. I'll let him know you asked about him.
