Wednesday, May 1, 2013

It Is My Baby's Birthday




It is Jessie Moon's 24th birthday today. I think that at right this moment, she is flying somewhere over the Atlantic, maybe, flying home from her honeymoon, her sweet husband by her side.

At her wedding, what I wrote and read for them



 started out, as is appropriate, with her birth which was a rainy day, a day where magnolias bloomed, a day when all of my brothers and all of Jessie's siblings and my dearest friends were with me and her father when she was born, a day where, after her birth, the sky cleared and a rainbow appeared.
Sounds unlikely, doesn't it?
Well. That is just the way it happened.
I also talked about dancing. I talked about how Jessie has always been a dancing girl and how she and Vergil dance so beautifully together and how they should always, always keep dancing. In the times of light and in the times of darkness and how in those darker times, they should hold each other especially closely to that they can help each other to find the rhythm again, should it go missing. Because no one knows what the years will deliver but that if they just keep dancing together, it will be all right.
And I believe that with all of my heart.

It's my baby's birthday. She is newly wed. The twenty four years of her life have gone by like a finger snap for me. Like the lighting of a candle and a flame growing up a wick, bringing light.

I've been going back through pictures and of course I'm in tears. If you were here with me, I would show you hundreds of pictures and I would tell you the stories and the stories would involve all of us, her brother, her sisters, her father, me, our shared beloved friends, and then this great love story of her meeting and courting and being courted by Vergil.

Well. Here are a few of those pictures. I have no idea why I've chosen them above all the others but as always, I am just going with my gut. Together they tell a little bit of the story of her life. So far.



Me and that girl, a long time ago. Dog Island.


Jessie and her best friend, Melissa, also on Dog Island. Melissa was one of her bridesmaids. They have been friends and sister-friends and bandmates for forever and ever.


In high school. A picture of the Cicada Ladies being born.


Jessie and her daddy, again, in high school.




With her fairy godparents, Lon and Lis, when she got the mandolin which Lon had made for her. 


Dancing with Vergil in our hallway, the first time he came to visit.


With our dearly beloved Colin who loved her so much and who had to come and check out this Vergil guy. He approved of the Vergil guy. All was good. 


With Owen, the day after he was born.


When she graduated from FSU Nursing School with Miss Nana, her favorite teacher, a woman who had been my favorite teacher when I was in nursing school before Jessie was born.


Jessie and Vergil sitting on the front steps of their house in Asheville right after they moved in.


The day after Gibson's birth when he was still a crumpled little monkey. 


With her sisters right before she got married.


With her husband, right after she got married. 


Jessie and her grandmother, who shared her birthday. I think this is from the year that Jessie turned seventeen and Mother turned 79. Something like that. This is the first birthday of her life that Jessie will not be sharing the day with her grandmother who adored her. I hope it is not too much of a sadness in her heart because in truth, her grandmother is finally and at last in peace and at rest and all of the suffering and unhappiness of her last years are over.
She would be so proud of Jessie. Of that there is no doubt.

It is my baby's birthday. She was born to me twenty-four years ago and she has been light and love and joy ever since. I imagine she always will be. She is a dancing girl. She has found a partner to dance with throughout life. She is dancing her way home across the ocean to us from countries far away where she, I feel certain, has danced joyfully with her fella. She will come home and she will continue to do her own unique and light-filled dance as she works with mother and babies, as she tends the home she and Vergil have made, as she perhaps eventually births her own babies. 

Then she will begin to know how much she is loved. Although, actually, I think she has an inkling already.

Happy birthday, my darling, dancing girl. Happy birthday to Mean Aunt Jessie. Happy birthday to my back-pocket baby.

You are loved. 




17 comments:

  1. Oh Mz. Moon.... tis lovely. DANG I miss you.

    Big hug my dear.

    Love,

    Lis

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  2. Sweet Jesse and her mama - happy birthday to both of you beautiful people!!! Sweet Jo

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  3. Great post. Happy Birthday Jessie!!! You too Mary!

    Her birth story perfectly fits with her spirit. Thanks for sharing that.
    xo

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  4. That is lovely. Thank you. I got a little tiny bit weepy and I don't even know her!

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  5. 。☆。*。☆。
    ★。\|/。★
    * Happy Birthday*
    ★。※ to ※。★Jessie!。☆¤

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  6. There's so much goodness here, i almost can't stand it. Thank you so much for sharing your children with us, Mary. My heart is lifted and warmed.

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  7. Happy birthday to dear Jessie, such a bright light, such a shining good soul, such love in every one of these pictures. Oh Mary, you did good.

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  8. Oh, thank you for sharing! So lovely to see her through your eyes...

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  9. That baby of yours is now such a beautiful, kind, talented, gracious, loving young woman. The photos are fabulous, just as she is and you are.

    Happy birthday to both of you!

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  10. Happy birthday to Jessie! Loved the photo documentary. I hope that she will be home soon and can enjoy her birthday with her husband.

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  11. What a beautiful post; I am sure Jessie will love to read this. They picked such a perfect day for their wedding because the next Saturday was crazy cold--like 30's in the a.m. and only in the 50's later. I remember you wrote that Jessie asked you to say anything you wanted at the wedding--she knew you would do it well and it sounds like it!
    --Michele R.

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  12. Thank you for sharing all of those photos. True loveliness.

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  13. Happy birthday (belatedly) to Jessie, and I loved the family photos. Thanks for sharing!

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  14. We should all be so lucky to have a mother write such kind words! Happiest of birthdays to your baby!

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  15. Heartinhand just said what I was going to say, which is I am so lucky to have you as a mama and to come here to this blog where I get to read such lovely words about myself and see photos that show how much love I receive by all these different people. It's too much to express in words- but I'll tell you, I sure am grateful and happy for this life that I have, that you gave to me.

    Thanks bloggie family for all the kindness and your words of love, too.

    I love you so much Mama!

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  16. Beautiful walk down memory lane for you and your beautiful girl.
    Happy Birthday!

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  17. Darling Lis- I miss you too. Our time is coming!

    Sweet Jo- Thank you, dearie!

    Ms. Fleur- It was like The Perfect Home Birth. Absolutely.

    Betsy- If you did, you would love her.

    Birdie- Nice!

    Elizabeth- It's like the most public photo album imaginable. Which means I'm really narcissistic. I guess.
    But thank you, love.

    Angella- She came that way. I swear.

    Big Mamabird- They are the only eyes I could possibly show her to you through!

    Lulumarie- You know how much your words mean to me. Thank you.

    Syd- They are home!

    Michele R- It was hard to write. I kept crying.

    Denise- Thank YOU for coming by and sharing.

    Steve Reed- And to you, dear man.

    heartinhand- What else could I do?

    Jessiehoneyluna- And you know your mama loves you. Thanks for taking the time in your coming-home fog and exhaustion to give me those words.

    Ms. Yo- I think we'll keep her.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.