One

Yesterday was an amazing day.  Phyllis, one of my dearest friends at work, slipped a bag onto my desk.  A bag with the words, "Build a Bear Workshop".  I have never been in Build a Bear Workshop.  I have always stopped on the outside, looking into the store/factory at children with their tall ones picking out bears and outfits, hearts and giggles, bunnies and others animals waiting to tell the story about their boy or girl.  Soft animals built from the hearts and passions and minds of children. Each whispering secrets of those hearts and minds that made them.  Some with soccer outfits, others dressed as ballerinas.  Mine, a dark chocolate brown bear dressed in green scrubs with hat and mask, holding an Xray in one hand, a squeeze of the other brings laughter to your heart as the pure innocence of a child giggle emanates from my bear.  The Xray shows the ribs, spine, and pelvic bone, with a red heart on the second rib.  A heart covering the cancer on my rib.  A sweet dark chocolate bear that giggles.  A bear that can go with me when I am not with my children.  A bear I can hug and think of my dear beloved who slipped this sweet present on my desk.


Then spending time with Ms Moon and Lis and Mr. Moon, what a special sweet wonderful evening.


Today my youngest brother, his wife and their 2 sons and I went to the Monticello Winery and the boys picked grapes and Patricia and I sampled wine.  She liked the semi sweet Magnolia wine. Made from the Magnolia variety of muscadine grapes grown there at the vineyard.  I liked the Florida Red.  Each of these tasting as fresh as the grapes that made them.


Then we drove on Old Lloyd Road so Tom could get some pictures of the creek, of course we stopped at the Post Office for pictures, then through Capitola and Chaires into Tallahassee.  First back to school supplies, check, lunch at the food court of the mall, check, get a short course on cheeses at New Leaf by the amazing and wonderful Billy!  And he gave us a couple of cheeses to try that I thought was awfully sweet, but all the friends of Ms Moon already know that Billy is awfully sweet, as is his Shayla and little Waylon.  Buy aloe vera for throat, check, check, check.  Then on to Cool Cow, which I think it should be called the Holy Cow, they sell ice cream and I bought gift cards for my radiation group.  Just a small gesture of thank you, hopefully it will being a smile to their faces.  A quick stop at Publix, and then Chicken delight and home.  A long day.  But we enjoyed it and did so many things.  


And now Patricia and I are eating cheeses and a lovely rustic olive bread and wine.  It is still hard to swallow, but I can eat the bread and cheese.  I have to take very very small bites and chew it for a very very very long time, but as long as I sip on wine as I eat, I can eat real food.  Oh yeah.


And I am back home with my animals.  I have the most wonderful family.  It is made of rocks and gardens filled with plants, roses, lilies of all kinds, mums, black bamboo, butterfly plants,yarrow, and so many many more.  My orchid and vineyard, my chicken coop, the blueberries and strawberries, horse radish, cherries, vegetable gardens and my animals.  


Maggierose, my 14 year old black lab.  The queen of the house, my girl, my sweet sweet Maggierose, mother of my Harry and Lily, bless her heart.  And Harry, one of the largest sweet hearts covered in a lab body you could ever want to meet.  He is 12 now, milk chocolate brown, his head the size of a mastiff, his heart bigger and stronger then any heart you could ever meet, and everyone loves Harry, always have, always will.  He is Harry.  And then there is my Bob.  My little boy.  He loves me.  I love that dog more then I ever thought I could.  I mean I love Maggie and Harry and Lily was my girl and we had a special relationship and I loved that sweet yellow girl.  But my Robert Copernicus, that sweet center of our universe here at Labrun.  Bob is so worried about me right now.  At night when we go to sleep he puts his head on my neck and snores gently in my ear and wakes each morning desperate for love and attention.  A hug, a rub of his ears, a pat of his head, some sweet puppy love in the morning.  And he is my shadow and strength, my sweet little Bob puppy, my boy.


And then my cats, the awfully difficult Marina.  The smallest of my cats, but the one most likely to remove someone's appendage.  She is a small black manx, fierce, evil.  But I love her.  Then Henry, my beige manx boy, my sweet affectionate boy who loves to be picked up and hugged and carried around or go for a ride in the car.  He sleeps with Bob and I each night.  Then Stella Bella and Bella Luna the twins.  OK, they don't look alike exactly but they were womb mates and came to me at 6 weeks old.  Sweet shy Luna  and demanding bold Stella.  So similar and so very different.  


Not to forget Jefferson, my rooster, Zora Neal the queen hen, Bea Arthur the loony one, Dani Quail and Buttercup Stanford shy, Rose Nylan, the one that always comes running to see me and Ethel Waters the survivor, my sweet hens.  And of course the peeps, Amy and River Song.  We have lost the third peep.  But David Smith is still doing well and getting bigger and stronger, and loves attention and loves to be picked up and loved.  And then there are gold fish living in my lotus pond.  And then of course bunnies, lots and lots and lots of bunnies.  Hopping everywhere, eating everything, sweet lovely prolific bunnies. 


And trees and grass and shade loving plants and sun loving plants taking in carbon dioxide and giving back clean fresh air, beauty, love and joy.  I tend them, they give back to me.  My plants, my animals, the dirt, the rocks, the clay, the decaying compost I spread so generously on the gardens.  My little world, my Labrun , my place of quite and solitude, where we are all one family, one story, one journey, one heart beating in rhythm with love and respect and affection.  


Then beyond Labrun, my beloveds, my family and friends, and their children and plants and animals.  All one, all loved, respected all part of this planet, this universe with a small single star for our sun, and out and beyond, all of us part of the one, breathing out and breathing in, shedding and growing, dying and living, evolving, changing, adapting, understanding, questioning, loving, giving, taking, sharing.  One.