Western Philosophy tells us to Open the Present.

Monday, February 16 was my birthday.  But one day for a birthday is not really enough for any sensible person....Joe and I believe the in the Birthday Week.  So for my birthday week I went out to dinner with my sister, brother-in-law, husband, daughter, most loved cousin and cousin-in-law.  We had a funny and delightful time and I went home with a 3 pound heart of chocolate (really, Peg, what were you thinking????) which has been consumed at an alarming rate by everyone I can give a piece to.  (I'm not sure how many pounds of Martha = how many pounds of chocolate....but I suspect it is not a one to one relationship.)  And then on Sunday I went to breakfast with my husband, daughter and son and we all came home and moved furniture.  Doesn't sound like fun?  But it was all in the interest of creating this lovely thing that you see above you.  What I wanted for my birthday, besides dinner, breakfast and 3 pounds of chocolate, was a grow light on a baker's rack in my kitchen.  There is not quite enough light in the dining room portion of the kitchen to grow culinary herbs and I really need fresh basil at a basic primitive level.  So now I can have it whenever I want, at any time of the year.

And here are some pictures of the flowers that arrived on Tuesday via my wonderful knitting women from the Tuesday night knitting class.  Are they not beautiful?  And the overall theme for this entry.....came from Margaret's card.  I also took a photo of the Best Carrot Cake Ever which was made by Emily....but the photo was not good enough.  It's just as well....the cake is indescribably delicious and it would just be teasing to show it to you without being able to offer you a piece.

So why did I lead in with Eastern Philosophy tells us to live in the present.....Western Philosophy tells us to open the present?  Well, on my actual birthday I went down to visit Hampshire College with my daughter Devan.  Hampshire was great, and is a real contender in the Devan Going to College Sweepstakes.  We walked into the room where the newbie potential students were supposed to congregate for processing and sat down at a table with Zach and his dad Alex.  After a while Zach and Devan went off to attend a class and Alex and I decided to forgo the College Tour and just look around for ourselves.  It was interesting, informative, and way more fun that I had been expecting to have on a college visit.  And then at the end of the day Devan and I went to her interview and never got an opportunity to say goodbye or how much we had enjoyed meeting them.  And then this morning.....surprise....an e-mail....another present that I opened.

On the way down to Hampshire at 5:00 in the morning Devan and I were noticing that if we had known, 5 years ago when I was beginning the long siege of Chemo/Surgery/Chemo that took up 2 valuable years of our lives, that we would be driving down to Hampshire on my 54th birthday to visit.....well we would have been extremely happy to know that that was going to be a possibility, much less a reality.  But that experience of looking at the worst that could happen, and finding a way to make some kind of negotiated peace with that, has left us with the ability to do both......To Live in The Present.....And to Open the Presents.  Which is quite a gift in itself, don't you think?