Its June 25th and that means that my girl Gina has a birthday today. 21 years ago today I became a Mom. Of course there were plenty of hard moments but the thing I find myself thinking about lately is how fun it was. Gina, Jill and Morgan have brought so much zest to our lives. Here is a picture of our Gina at work this week at Medieval Times. Happy Birthday Gina!
This next picture includes Gina many moons ago. It is our whole family in 2008 when we visited Cody, Wyoming.
Last week Russ, Morgan and I returned to Cody. As you can probably imagine by the small boy peeking over the hitching post above, Morgan doesn’t remember Cody. We remembered it as a town with great cowboy museums and shops, Russ felt strongly that now was the right time to return so we made it happen. We tried to re-enact some of the pictures we remember taking the first time. This was the best we could do at “Old Trail Town.”
It was a trip full of lots of heart stirring moments. It was a priority for Russ to spend some time at the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn. The landscapes where the battle took place were a big part of our experience this time. The boys pondered a lot of information as we made our way around the loop. It was very sobering. I tried to get my head around the fact that such battle scenes and loss of life had happened in a place that was stunningly beautiful with loud birdsong as we encountered it. The native warriors prevailed against Custer’s invasion of their land and way of life, at least in this battle they prevailed, and the nature of their victory was well explored.
This was not our first trip to the museum, cemetery and battlefield. We had stopped there 18 years ago when my friend’s wedding took us to Denver. We tried to reenact a picture from that trip too. We didn’t pose just right and we were one block of cement off our original picture but here is the 2023 version and the 2005 version.
Our time in museums gave us some good things to contemplate. The picture below contains something that really struck me.
When we got home our cows, dogs and cat were in fine shape thanks to Ron, Ralph, Sheila, Rayna and Laurie. More work was waiting and suddenly its Sunday. This was a very big day for our family. We said good-bye to our minister, Morgan was baptized and confirmed and Russell was confirmed. Gina attended the Pride parade in Toronto and Jill is in Regina where she has a practice for the musical she is in at the end of August. I am the Mom with my head spinning in the midst of all that.
I love this picture of our minister Susan. Her hands are almost glowing. Those hands have done much holy work in our midst, blessed alot of bread and babies and today it was my boy who received the holy water of baptism through Susan’s caring hands.
This next picture is a very serious moment but was laced with humor, because of who Morgan and Susan are and the history that they share, Morgan was little more than four months old when Susan came to us.
A laying on of hands was part of the confirmation of faith process. Morgan asked Grandma Shirley and I to be part of this. I am honestly not certain about posting solemn and sacred moments like this. Yet……I cherish all the love depicted here and I don’t want to forget it. A member of the congregation took these pictures and shared them with me.
Russell was confirmed wearing this shirt that is very special to him. It was made for him by one of our people, our cousin Jenn, who carries her Dad’s Dene heritage with pride and generosity of spirit. It is a ribbon shirt.
Our morning finished with a delicious potluck and a dizzying amount of sweets as options for dessert. I took this picture of Grandma Shirley. She is a bright light in our lives.
This last picture from a genuine old time saloon in Cody features a big mirror and invites me to offer a reflection. What do I see looking back at me after a week like we have known? It has to be that the growth and change that is part of life is a marvel and it is holy. I am humbled and thrilled and laid low by it.
As Far As The Eye Can See 