My Home, My Heart of Rainbows

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY DAY!!!
My heart is full. My heart is blessed. My heart celebrates!
Spring + mothers + daughters + grand-mothers + grand-daughters + colors + delight + generations: the season of blooming, the season of growth, the season of love, the season of joy. 


This day of gratitude. This day of reflection. This day of LOVE!

I am one of those most-fortunate-of-all sandwich-generation women. 
My mommy is alive and well this day AND I am mommy to two glorious women AND beyond all techno-color dreams, I am GeeGee to the next generation as well: a mini-tribe of seven all told!! 


Oh. Be. Still. My. Heart. While. I. Happy. Dance!

My childhood was filled with the moments of Halmark Cards commercials: rolling sugar cookies together in the kitchen, being taught to embroider cross-stitches onto yellow gingham in a taught hoop, creating poetry notebooks on the theme of tranquility as an awkward adolescent. I was blessed with all of those daily memories. 
They brightened my perspective. They colored my days. They were my world. My twinkling childhood.

My mommy = three parts cheerleader*
My mommy = two parts champion*
My mommy = one part counselor*
***The proportions of this equation could be adapted on any given day.To this day she remains all three!!

"To those to whom much has been given, much will be demanded." 
(Luke 12: 48 substitute: expected, required depending on version.)


It is therefore my responsibility to pay my childhood forward. Pay it forward through my own daughters. Pay it forward through my own grand-children. Pay it forward to all the children I am blessed to meet in my travels..... whether interacting for an hour or an afternoon.


So I 'scrumble' my pippys. (Scrumble: to chase in gales of laughter followed by snuggling and tickling.)


And I 'count' my pippys. (Counting: child lies down as tall and straight as possible as we count together how tall they've grown since our last counting.... inching from bottoms of toes to tops of extended hair.... great for snuggling, tickling and numeracy.) 


And I sing and dance and laugh with the children I meet on the road. What a glorious road it is!

Traveling to new places is always an adventure and a thrill. These photos of this incredible work are a result of my Author visit last week to Laurel IN. Every visit is driven by one personality that contacts and coordinates, orchestrating our fun. 

In this case my travels were the brain child of Alta-the- Amazing. In our whirlwind up and down the sprawling elementary halls with my camera clicking at mach-speed, Alta hugged me saying that my visit was a jewel in her professional crown. It was at that point that she mentioned being 75 years old, with fifty years of 'professional' experience teaching children!!!! She has brought much color into the lives of children. In fact she fills the world with color!!


My blessed life has graced me with years with my mom-the-mentor and amazing experiences being a mom, too. There are many who have had those relationships interrupted or who have always longed for a healthy relationship to a 'mom' in their lives. It's people like Alta, who give their lives to EVERYONE's children that make our planet such an improved place. 


Since I've mushed this post together with the colors of those perfect preschool neighborhoods with an ode to my mom and a nod to the Altas me meet along our own roads, I think I'll digress just a tad further. Where do I get this 'call-to-color' of mine?? 

While on the adventure to Laurel we spent the night in the village of my childhood home: Batesville, IN. While taking in all of the sights of my formative years we made a stop to St. Mark's and made ourselves at home. I wonder if those years of singing in this sanctuary had anything to do with my love of color?


Yes. I am a P.K. in addition to the other alphabet soup of letters on my resume. [P.K. = Pastor's Kid.] That's a lifetime of being surrounded by stained glass. Walking back into the sanctuary of so many years ago -- I was literally transported by the colors of my childhood. 


This is the very spot where I learned, "Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world. Red, and yellow, black and white. They are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world."

We are who we come from. We are where we grew up. 


May this day be filled with bringing colors of joy to the lives you touch. Who are the 'moms' in your world? The women who love and support you when the times are tough? When the going gets rough? Are you fortunate to have those connections biologically? Or have you been graced with moms-relationally? Are you blessed to still be able to say thank-you to that person or persons? 


Go help the village where you find yourself this week and contribute your own unique color to the children in your life. 


                                         -- Debbie --