Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters

Abe slept most of the way to Portland, waking up to find a nice woman two seats back he could flirt with the last ten minutes of the flight. I unpacked our suitcases, fed Abe his favorite sweet potatoes, and went for a walk around the neighborhood. The grass has grown up in our front yard very quickly, and so right now we are that family on the street. I was lamenting this fact with my favorite neighbor Linda, and her thespian teenage son flitted out of the house and around the corner shouting, "I'll mow your grass!" Okay then. Just could you do it before my mom gets here so she doesn't know that we've become that family on our street?

Late in the evening, we opened up a package that had arrived from my aunt and uncle in Memphis: a hand stitched and framed I Samuel 1:27. It's a lovely reminder from a couple who know how to love well. Then, after Abe had dumped all the toys he'd forgotten we'd left behind out on the rug, we found our retro Up, Down Little Golden Book to read. Abe snuggled up in my lap and I started to read while "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" played through the speakers from a mix CD Susan had made for me. On page three of the book, I think on the part where the grass is down and the clouds are up, Abe turned his head completely around to look me in the eye. I stopped reading and looked back in his eyes.

Then he smiled a very gummy smile, never breaking his gaze at me.

It was right at this point that I heard Elton say, "I thank the Lord for the people I have found," lines that have been meaningful to me in the past but that have now taken new shape. I could hardly get through the rest of the book.

I read a book to my smiling son while listening to a CD made by a friend who inspires me to write, after being offered a grass-cutting from my neighbor's enthusiastic son and being reminded by my aunt and uncle to treasure the time we're in because it passes very quickly. Go hug the people you love. Um, or write a blog about them and really hope they read it, the way that family on the street seems to do.

"And I thank the Lord there's people out there like you
I thank the Lord there's people out there like you."--Elton John