Kaitlyln Turns 7, Second Impeachment, Reading Aloud

Today the sun came out after the long stretches of rain which leave the buckets 6 inches full after only a few days. Today my first grandchild is 7 years old. I walk/lope in the morning down the springwater trail and then up into Errol Creek Park to the spring which I call "the place of the water spirits". Kaitlyn loved that when I took her there, and she even put her hands into Anjali Mudra to honor the water spirits. So I said a prayer for her future, especially thinking about climate change and how it will play out after I am gone from the world. The news today after our sad, scary American world, is that our House of Representatives has impeached the madman in our White House for the second time. I call my Mom and her caregiver, to read aloud to Mom. I found an essay entitled "Maple Sugar Moon". Reading about maple trees, children, mothers, how trees grow from the original planters to a future of shade and beauty they will not know, but others will. I think of my little apple trees. Reading while Beatrice feeds my mom lunch. I recall that my grandmother, Mom's mom, had maple syrup in her history as a kid. A fading memory of a story she told. Then I rake leaves and clean up my yard after the rain storms. When I come in to check the sourdough bread I'm rising, I see a text from my son. Kaitlyn has gotten out of school early today, do I want a birthday video call? The last 2 days we've been having an afternoon time, and I read boxcar children books aloud, and she listens attentively. So for and hour I read "Benny Uncovers a Mystery". We chat in between, I show her how the bread has risen, she shows me her many pink balloons in her room. I show her the violets I found in the grass today. January flowers to keep us hopeful. Someday maybe you will read this Kaitlyn, and you will understand the very dire situation in our country. Today you get to be a kid. I tell you the story of the day you locked me out of the house when I was babysitting you. At only 19 months you were smart and cagey enough to know how to lock a door, and refuse to open it when you saw me outside trying to get back in! The night comes on and the bread rises.