Everyone has a favorite time of day, don't they?  I love mornings when everything is new ... or at least rested. Where I live, the birds wake up first and I hear them calling to each other or maybe they just wake up happy and are giving thanks for that.  Sammy barks early every morning at walkers in my neighbor,hood getting a little cardio in before a day at the office.  He and I will be walking in the wee hours this summer ... my schedule changes dramatically when my kids are out of school and the summer whirl begins.  I have realized while I type, that I will have summer specific activities with only one of my children this year ... Five ... life is changing again for me.  ... Hmmm,this is funny ... Three and I are still at home today.  He is able to leave later for school then the rest of my family must.  Here I am all settled in with the laptop and a cup, not just a cup, but that cup, of delicious first cup of the week, the house is quiet now, break before a long day of house keeping, coffee.  Suddenly, he needs to see the orthopedist, gotta check that golden arm of his ... and I'm not saying that facetiously ... . Three pitches left handed and always has ... he is a right handed young man ... very steady, very calculating, without any of the "flakiness" said to be inherent in lefties.  He trains like someone who has a eye on college baseball, but says his major of choice will preclude play.  My kid's first word was ball ... highly unusual ... or maybe not, one identifies a label for where ones needs are met ... usually, that first word is momma.  We'll see ... so far he is not biting on baseball after High School ...he's already been accepted to his first choice University.  The arm is the first pop up activity of the week for me.
The doctor's office number is in my phone and I still have an hour before they will begin taking calls ... .  

Saturday was a sweet day ... Science Olympiad activities with my youngest.  She organized her schedule of events, and I basically followed her around watching the laughter that danced in her eyes.  I can't remember how many of these particular events I have chaperoned, but, a bunch!  She was notably self efficient ... directing me to wait there or that I had time to hit the campus Starbucks, and btw extra cream for hers!  She's ten ... before Saturday, she did not drink coffee.  She told me just a bit of caffeine would boost her performance ... .

So, watching on Saturday, gave me time to do a little thinking.  Those thoughts are what I want to note here today.

I have journaled about broken pieces, and I have been happy that rather then just throw broken things out, I save them (Okay ... just to be specific, I'm talking about broken pottery, glassware ... vessels. And I do see those items as analogous to the parts of us that get dinged, or become broken as we live our lives.).  My intent is to recycle the material in to something wonderful.  I have just about settled on the idea of sprinkling the colored glass and glazed pottery shards in gently swirling lines into wet concrete pathways ... when the concrete cures, the rough  edges of these pieces will be sanded, or buffed out, smoothed ... soothed.  It really can be quite unique ... quite complex and lovely ... like a life. I started saving these pieces before I imagined what might be created with them ... I didn't want broken things glued back together, unusable, but maybe still pretty if one didn't look too close.  On the other hand ... many of the broken things still held memories and ... beauty, however reconfigured. ( I don't think significantly more things are broken in my house then in most any other homes ... especially a home that has nurtured five very active children. ... this isn't at all about mourning broken treasures ... I ascribed to the notion of the importance of people, not things ... things are intended to be enjoyed by people.)

I'm running out of time here ... so quickly to note:  Some of the pieces in my container of broken things ... out in the garage ... some of the pieces are still really big pieces ... like a beautiful green glass platter that was broken cleanly in half ... it calls me back to what I wanted it to be, rather then what it might become (It will never be a platter again, but it might become more then broken pieces ... it could become something I value more then the platter). See, the deal is this ... adventures of the soul ... there's not an app for this ... no manual ... no guidebooks.  I personally believe we are collaborating with who I call God  ... my soul's first word ...  we create ourselves with the choices we make.  Some of our "material" is broken, and that is not a bad/sad thing at all ... small pieces add up to big  (the big we're building) ... big pieces are a lot less malleable because they already are something.  This makes perfect sense to me.