I'm wearing a flannel shirt as I type this, seems a bit early for that but that is the beauty of New England...a two week summer. This is labor day week-end and my niece is returning from Texas for her last year of college. She came up for a quick visit and I had this conversation with my two this evening as we were all missing her after she left:"Is Anna your Aunt?"
"No, she is my niece...she was also my first pumpkin."
"So she was your first kid?"(try and wrap your head around the metaphysical implications of that question)
"No, sweets, you guys are my only kids...but she was the first little one in the family...she was the family's first pumpkin."
"So everybody liked her and so then there could be more kids."
Yep...Anna led the way. I remember her locking me out of the car when she was two years old. I remember crying in the driveway at the crack of dawn, saying goodbye to that pumpkin and driving from Texas to New England. I remember the beautiful poem she wrote and read at my wedding at the ripe old age of 11. Now, I listen to her tales of studying abroad in Greece, of the magic she found in Switzerland, and the Cotton Candy mountain she showed us pictures of in Turkey. I am amazed at what an accomplished artist she is at 21 and most of all, I feel such hope. Her generation will listen to Obama's speech this Tuesday and judge it on content. She will tackle injustice and oppression through her art (she already has) and through her world travels. So, pumpkin, you come for a visit whenever you can. It does our hearts and souls good.
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