Day 209 - Mothers Day reflections

Day 203 - Things that really count.

'The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.

  They must be felt with the heart.'

This morning a very dear friend forwarded me a lovely email that ended with the lines above. In these busy times with all its challenges, I'm so glad she took the time to do this as it made me sit down and think about how true this statement is.

I'll be the last one to deny that I enjoy the good things in life but isn't part of this journey that I'm on to start focusing on what's really important? What brings real and lasting happiness? 

When I walk those 25km's a day, what will really bring a smile to my face? The new dress I bought a week ago, the nice car I love driving so much, or will it be the feeling of love that floods my entire soul when I hold my grandchild and we laugh till our tummies ache at the silliest of jokes?

As for how much luggage I can take along, I'm going to be restricted to less than 10kg. I thank God that the most important 'luggage' that I will be taking along weighs zero kg on earth but  a couple of tons in my heart!

I'll be focusing on accumulating as many special moments to pack in my storeroom from this day forward - I'll have at least 780km to relive each and every one! 

Day 65 - All I did was blink my eye...

This is my youngest. Well, it's her about 21 years ago. Yep, I have to say it out loud - my baby turns 25 this week.

WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN? I ask myself. All I did was blink my eyes and voila, my two kids are grown and I'm a grandmother.

So now do you understand why I feel such a need to celebrate my BIG birthday by walking the Camino de Santiago? It feels as if I have to halt things for a little while. I need to hit the brakes, be it for only a few weeks! I don't know if you can identify, but it just feels to me as if my life is flying past at a speed that seems supersonic!

I looked at this young woman last night who is now a mother herself and I recalled images of her that are etched in my mind. I could see her playing on the beach without a care in the world, I remembered the look on her face when I had to leave her at 'big school' for the first time, I recalled how she cried when she tried to cut her fringe herself and when it was all scew, she tried cutting it shorter and shorter, until she was left with no option but to wear a cap for a few weeks. I recalled how proud I was when she got her drivers licence and I also remembered the call of despair I got one afternoon when she'd missed her turn off - 'Mom, I'm lost - help!'

I have a lifetime of memories to recall, enjoy, reflect upon and treasure. I can only hope that I have passed on a positive legacy to my child. The negative things in life are inevitable and unfortunately we can't always shield our children from everything. It is what it is. As long as the positive outweighs the negative, I say there's hope for a happy existence!

So last night my family came over for dinner to celebrate her 25th birthday. How special it felt to have three generations of women in our family celebrate together. The men are all somewhat camera shy but the girls were more obliging - so here goes!

My sister, my mom, moi and the birthday girl.

 I still find it quite daunting to prepare food for guests but it always seems to work out and we had a feast - in fact I told them I'm not cooking on Christmas eve as this was the 'big one'. Famous last words - I know...

This was my first Lemon Meringue pie ever - whoever wrote this recipe knows their story, it was a hit!

Not sure how I'm going to survive the pilgrim's menu on the camino but as long as there's tapas available, I guess I'm going to be OK!

Here's to the first day of the rest of your life my child!