Keep it movin’
I love this story playing on NPR right now. A man’s wife dies after a long illness and the next morning, he finds his young children getting ready for school. He questions them, saying, “You don’t have to go to school today. Mommy just died yesterday.” His daughter says, “We are going to school because Mommy would want us to keep it movin’.” (“Keep it movin'” was a favorite saying of the mom.)
That’s how I feel. Keep it movin’. It reminds me of the morning so long ago when we received the news that the beach urchins’ beloved Grandma Sally had died. They were in 4th and 1st grade and I told them that they didn’t have to go to school if they didn’t want to. I had some sort of half-baked plan to go out for breakfast and, oh I don’t know what else. Drive down by the river or whatever. They were having nothing of that. Of course they were going to school. They *had* to go to school. “We can’t miss school!” Okay. So they went to school. And *I* went to school too. To read to my “pirates”. After school we went out and got the beach urchins’ ears pierced.
I am keeping it movin’. I don’t think that keeping it movin’ means never slowing down enough to look back and remember people that are gone. I think it means continuing to put one foot in front of the other. Moving forward. Keeping up with our responsibilities and our relationships with the *living*. The pace may be slower on some days than others and it is okay to take little breaks when you need them but onward is the name of the game.
I am feeling pretty good about things this weekend. (Knock on wood for me please!) We have actually made enough progress in our flinging activities that I was even able to do a little bit of *cleaning*. I mean cleaning in the areas of the Landfill that aren’t cleaned as a matter of daily routine. Cleaning kitchens and bathrooms is a *requirement* for me. I can live with a little lot of dust in other areas. My goal is to get rid of enough “stuff” that I can *easily* clean any nook and cranny of the Landfill that I want to, without moving a whole bunch of stuff. But rodent turds *anywhere* send me into a fury. And so I was flinging books (mostly around, not out) in the Landfill Dungeon and I discovered rodent turds in yet another place. Off I went, looking for the rickety old Eureka canister-style vacuum and some windex or whatever. But as I was galumphing up the stairs, I heard the vacuum cleaner start up. The GG was cleaning out my cute little Ninja. Probably about the first time the poor little thing has been vacuumed since maybe a year and a half ago. No way was I gonna disturb that activity!
I have to give the GG a big bunch of kudos here. He has also been flinging and he’s been helping me fling some of The Commander’s stuff that I’m sure she had her own plans to fling… AND. He vacuumed out the Ninja today and mowed the grass in the back yard (new grass in the front) and did all kinds of other maintenance-type things too numerous to list.
Plus we started the day (I guess I am going backwards through the day) with a loverly urban hike from the Landfill up to and through Bird Hills park, picked up the Washtenaw Border to Border Trail at Barton Dam and hiked along the river to one of our fave breakfast joints, the Northside Grille. Back home through Kerrytown, up Miller, and through Miller Woods, where we encountered the loverly bracket fungus in the photoooo.
Bracket fungus seems to be a good way to end this higgledy-piggledy entry.
Hope your weekend was good. Love,
KW
April 29th, 2012 at 6:18 pm
The photo looks kind of like a cartoon character. I agree with your philosophy of “keeping it moving…” It helps to keep life as normal as possible. Some people have thought that I should be taking off lots more time from work than I have, but it helps me to be there.