We got stuff! Jessie got new plates for her home with delicate blue birds and flowers on them. She got a bathroom rug and a nightie and a little robe. I got a silk shirt, made in Italy, which is as soft as cloud, as drapey as an angel's wing. And a new tablecloth for my back porch table which is where I live, for the most part, and I love it. I had just told Hank a few days ago that I am so very, very picky about my tablecloth because I DO spend so much time here and he understood. It is my porch's furniture and carpet and curtains. And I just realized how very much the colors in this new one mimic the colors of the eggs my hens' lay. Muted blues and greens and ivory.
We came home and put our booty and food away, put the tablecloth on the table. I made a shot of espresso (oh! the joy of being able to drink coffee again!) and picked greens and washed and cut them, put them on the boil, started black-eyed peas for our supper. I folded laundry, started more. And I am exhausted.
Jessie is too. She's napping on the couch right now and if there is anything sweeter than feeding my babies, it is knowing that they can sleep peacefully in my house.
I can't believe she's going to leave tomorrow, this child. My back-pocket baby.
My eyes fill with tears at the thought.
Well, Mama, sniff those tears back up in your head, she'll be back soon enough.
And she will. She and Vergil are talking about house-shopping in Tallahassee. That day can't come soon enough for me. And maybe some of the other kids and I or her daddy and I or some combination thereof will make the trek up to Asheville sometime this summer to visit them. We shall see.
I just know it's been the best weekend. The gathering of the tribe and of the tribes.
My tribe is small but all the more precious to me for that.
Yesterday when Owen got his medal, I told him, "I hope you remember this day for the rest of your life."
He said, "And if I forget, I will have this medal to look at and it will remind me."
Such a wise little boy.
I have this tablecloth to remind me. Not of Jessie whom of course I could never forget, but of this day, this simple day where we shopped and laughed and joked and talked endlessly about childbirth and babies (no, she is not pregnant) and most importantly, any time I wanted I could reach out and touch her, hold her to me.
I've always said I like it best when all my babies are where I can get my hands on them if I need to.
Today I could get my hands on that girl and it was such a joy.
And she is still here for tonight and I can still get my hands on her.
A precious, rare day. A gift among all the riches and I just talked to May on the phone and I teared up again, telling her how very grateful I am for all of my children, for their lives and their living and our love for each other.
I am exhausted but it is a good exhaustion.
And so that you may know that I am still my mean old bitchy self, let me tell you about something which has been pissing me off ALL DAY LONG!
It's from a review written in the South China Morning Post regarding the Rolling Stones' performance last night in Macau.
It said:
And let me just say to the South China Morning Post: Get back to me, motherfuckers, when you have lived one one-hundredth of the life of Keith Richards. When you have walked one inch on the path of where his life has led.
And let me add this- HIS DEEPLY-ETCHED FACE IS STILL ADORNING THE HEAD OF A LIVING ROCK STAR LEGEND WHO IS STILL PLAYING GUITAR JOYFULLY TO SOLD OUT CROWDS EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD. AND IT IS BEAUTIFUL!
Yeah, get back to me then, South China Morning Post.
Love...Ms. Moon
Oh, you make me smile!
ReplyDeleteI would love to see those plates! I have a small but meaningful collection of bluebirds. I haven't seen them on plates yet.
ReplyDeleteAnd Amen to that about Keith and your love for your children.
ReplyDeleteThe Surfer and I listened to the Stones in his car this morning and talked about their vitality and live wire electricity. I got to see them twice once when they were young and once when they were less young. Both stunning performances. It is an American myth that there is something wrong with lines in your face that which gives us character those lines we've worked for those lines we've earned. They are a thing of exquisite beauty on people as far as I'm concerned.
ReplyDeletelove,
Rebecca
I love you!
ReplyDeleteI wondered about Jessie's state of maybe baby. Have other people been asking?? :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a good day. I am so glad for a good day for you and her and a wonderful weekend for your whole family. I made a video for my dad for his 60th birthday and the opening quote was "A happy family is but an earlier heaven." I believe that.
Elizabeth- As you do me.
ReplyDeleteBirdie- They are not so much bluebirds as blue birds.
Syd- Thank, sweet man.
Rebecca- Exactly what I'm saying. They are the way life has carved its art into a person's face. The more living, the more lines. The deeper, the closer to the truth of it all.
heartinhand- Well, I love you too.
SJ- You know me. I think our heaven and hell are right here. I have way more heaven than I deserve. It HAS been a good day. And no, no one's been asking about Jessie but I thought that maybe mentioning all our talk about childbirth might trigger some speculation. Of course I've always been obsessed with birth and Jessie has been too and works in that field of medicine. So it's a very natural thing for us to discuss. Endlessly.
I do declare, we had that very same exact tablecloth on the table when I was a kid around 13 or 14.
ReplyDeleteHello Ms Moon, I am returning your visit to my blog to thank you for for the lovely comments. I am so glad I did as I have enjoyed this post and am enjoying your blog. It's tender-hearted and if you don't mind me saying so, real feisty. I like the fact that you spoke so sweetly of your family and then defended the Rolling Stones so vehemently. Good for you! No one should sit in judgement of how a person looks now or even judge their lifestyle, none of us look like we once did. They have have enough energy to entertain an appreciative audience at this stage of their lives, that's pretty amazing.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the simple goodness and deep happiness of such a day with your girl and weekend with your tribe.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it strange how we reach for the colors that hold some meaning for us, even though we're not thinking of that other meaning when we're reaching. It seems like it just happens but it's drawing from the patterns in the world around us. Or something mysterious. You brought it into consciousness, and it gave me pleasant memories of how this has happened to me too. It's a sort of magic. A reassuring magic.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of surprised the South China Morning Post even reviewed the Rolling Stones. Aren't they, I don't know, decadent and un-Communist?
ReplyDeleteThat tablecloth is great -- the print seems very '40s, like something from "Moon Over Miami."
I lost my Mom almost five years ago. As much as I miss her every day, it's the days that I still head to the phone to call her that literally knock me down. I understand your love of just hangin' out with your daughter...Mom and I did that, too. They're memories I'll always cherish.
ReplyDeleteI will send vibes for Jessie to land in Tallahassee. Though I'm sure Asheville will miss her. But family needs her more.
ReplyDeleteI love seeing Florida through your eyes. You've shaped it into this magical, mythical place.
And yeah, screw whoever wrote that about Keith Richards. They know nothing at all.
Rubye Jack- It's an April Cornell tablecloth and they do copy vintage fabrics. I love it!
ReplyDeleteDenisein- I loved your post on McKee Gardens! Thanks for coming by. Yes. I can be feisty. Also profane. Which I gather you have already discovered. I am also obsessed with Keith Richards but that's just a thing. My son calls him my spirit totem animal.
Ha!
Angella- I know you do! It's what keeps us going, isn't it?
Andrea- It IS funny that I didn't notice until I got the tablecloth home how the colors are like my eggs. Which just delighted me.
Steve Reed- It is very vintage-y, isn't it?
I think China is a lot more decadent than it used to be but you would know far more than I.
Catrina- It is the small moments, isn't it? They are the precious ones.
Ms. Vesuvius- It is my joy to share my love of my home to people. Also my joy to defend Keith Richards! As if he needs it.