Recognizing Gifts and October Yarn Along

 

I received a wonderful gift this weekend.  Instead of politics, campaigns, and endless emails, and because it was our daughter and son-in-law’s anniversary, we had a sleepover.  Until then, I didn’t realize just how much I needed one.

Instead of the news, I watched Casper the Friendly Ghost, and Peter Rabbit.  I played board games.  I took long walks to visit the neighbors, no matter their politics. I collected leaves, flowers, and found sticks to serve as magic brooms. 

I played Ghost Busters, when each falling leaf was an encroaching ghost and we even needed to defend our headquarters and stop a ghost invasion.  I read Halloween books when I kid you not, hand to God, a fox trotted across the yard just a few feet in front of where we were sitting outside the playhouse/headquarters; showing up one page earlier then in the story we were reading!

At a time when we, as a county party, are busy replacing Biden and Bollier signs because the first ones have been either stolen, vandalized, or even wrongly removed by the state’s department of transportation, it was wonderful to live in the world of children again. Just today I pulled the Biden and Bollier yard signs from our own yard to replace the two highway signs stolen on Friday night.  Until social media and working as the county party chair, I had no idea what division and nastiness resided in this county.   

I’m looking forward to November when after the election Paul and I will be stepping down as chairs of the party.  And no matter who wins, I intend to go into seclusion.  In life before Covid 19, I would have wrapped myself in the warmth and comfort of family.  It breaks my heart that we have not been able to be together as a whole family group since it began.  I suppose we will see what the fall and winter will bring.  But in my heart of hearts I know it won’t be possible.

But I will find other things to bring me joy, and possibly frustration.  This fall we installed a greenhouse.  I am sure I will spend many hours learning through trial and error.  There will be time again for drawing and painting.  While I did start knitting a sweater in August I’ve really not made any progress on it.  So I’ve settled for knitting leaves; because unless I’m knitting while sitting on the sofa, I’m sleeping on the sofa.

I am making time for books.  I just started Elizabeth is Missing, by Emma Healey, to prepare for the upcoming Masterpiece series.  I read the kids The Widow’s Broom, by Chris Van Allsburg.  I’d forgotten how wonderful it was.  And we were reading The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales, by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, when the fox trotted by; both of them leftover from when our kids were young.

So, as Rowen said to Jools yesterday, "Is there room on the broom for a girl like me?"