The month of May was typically full. I meant to document more of this busy season, but somehow here it is June 9th, and so much has happened that I'm not quite sure where to begin.
Perhaps I'll work backwards:
On the first of June, my husband and I celebrated 30 years of marriage. How can we have been married so long, when our wedding seems like last year, our children's babyhood feels only months ago, teenagers ruled the house just last week, and it still feels like we are learning to love? Time is so relative!
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| June 1, 1996 |
Although we marked this milestone with good cheer, including a Veuve Clicquot toast (my fave because of Babette's Feast, although usually we toast with Cook's, which is what we had at our wedding), it was an understated celebration, like many of our anniversaries. We have a busy summer ahead - see prior post. We'll be celebrating many times over. My gift to my husband was saying yes to spending more money than we should have on a piece of original art offered at our daughter's school auction - so it served a good cause. My husband surprised me with a gift of a necklace with seven pearls, one for each of the kids. Although we had said the art work was our anniversary gift, I actually love this necklace - and it was on sale! Even better! My husband has not always had the best of luck predicting what I like in the way of jewelry - not that I don't like what he buys; I just don't always fit the style he choses... This time his choice was spot on.
We were also going to go out to eat to a restaurant we haven't tried, but our college daughter returned home from college that afternoon. Her return was delayed because she qualified for the NCAA regional meet in the 800. Because of that we spent a couple days on the road driving down to Lexington, Kentucky, and back to watch her run. A 5.5 hour drive one way for a 2 minute race. She had a stellar season, dropping 6 seconds from her PR last year, but she didn't quite hit her PR in this race, and competition was tough to move on to the finals. Fortunately, she has the potential to get stronger next year. Although she raced a lot in high school, her training mileage was low, and she hasn't burnt out like so many athletes who compete at elite levels at young ages.
Needless to say, we stayed more than 2 minutes at the meet and watched some of the other races, including her teammate's mile run, but we did not spend time exploring UK or Lexington. I love track meets, and this one was large with elite runners running at their peak. I love watching the strength and speed of these athletes, all women on this day. Other people can have their football and basketball games, but I'll take a track and field meet any day!
We also added a little extra driving to our travel time to stop in to visit our granddaughter, who keeps getting cuter than ever, and we spent the night and morning with my parents before making the return trip in time to get back for school/work. A full couple of days.
I do love a road trip. Just days before our jaunt down south, I returned from a Memorial Day road trip to Montreal with some fellow faculty members on a pilgrimage to see the St. Joseph Oratory and shrine to St. Andre Bessette, and the burial place/shrine to Kateri Tekakwitha.
This was a 14 hour driving journey northeast. Since it was made with friends and coworkers, the time flew by. This particular group was a very easy going crowd, so our stops weren't long, but neither were they rushed. It helps to travel with low maintenance companions. We met once a month during the school year to read and discuss and learn about St. Andre Bessette and his life and miracles in Montreal.
The oratory itself is stunning, the largest church in Canada.
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| The school door where St. Andre was the doorman |
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| View of the oratory from the gardens where there are life size stations of the cross |
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| The original small oratory built by St. Andre and friends. He lived in the loft. |
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| view of the oratory from the side |
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| Sculpture of Angels Unaware |
Candles for St. Joseph
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St Andre's tomb
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In contrast, the shrine to St. Kateri is small and humble.
The weekend prior to that our fourth son/fifth kid graduated from college. We hosted a big party at our house, and I helped plan a big party at a reception place with a couple other moms. It was a bit bigger and more elaborate than I initially planned, but everyone had a fabulous time. The graduation was lovely. The valedictorian gave a very moving speech, and Timothy Shriver, the Laetare medal winner, had everyone in tears with his story of a Special Olympics athlete at the world games in Ireland. The commencement address was given by Sr. Raffaella Petrini, a Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist who is the president of the Pontifical Commission and Governorate of Vatican City State. She is the highest ranking woman at the Vatican, and one of the highest Vatican officials - basically the governor of the Vatican state. The baccalaureate was also moving - everyone loves the singing of the Alma Mater. And the Arts and Letters grad ceremony included some thoughtful remarks from the dean and a sighting of a Supreme Court Justice. It was a celebratory weekend.
The weekend before that I took my parents to North Carolina and Smoky Mountain National Park to see our daughter run and to spend some time in the mountains (hills for people who are used to Sierras and Rockies). This trip was a bit spur of the moment, but planned after our spring break trip didn't pan out. My dad has Parkinson's and is moving slower these days, but this area has a lot of accessible trails that are paved or are well-groomed. For instance, we visited a few waterfalls. The most stunning was a 120 ft fall on Cherokee land. It has a stair climb that has a hand rail and benches just below the falls, so people can admire their beauty. This is not my favorite kind of hike, as I am more drawn to quieter, more remote hikes, but we were there on a weekday before the summer crowds, and its beauty was well worth the climb. I also had thought an AirBnB would be more scenic, but hotels are easier and more predictable for my dad, so we stayed at a Best Western that was right on a river. Our rooms had balconies over the water, and the free coffee and breakfast was a perk. It worked out well for visiting the cute little town of Sylva, NC, and the track meet at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. After our drive through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg on the north side of the Smoky Mtn NP, I highly recommend the south side! It was grown exponentially since my trips as a kid.
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| view from Clingman's Dome, the highest point in SMNP |
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A little black bear farewelled us on our exit from the park
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In between those trips I took the train up to Chicago for the American Literature Association Conference. I love riding the train, which gave me an extra two hours to work on my paper on Wendell Berry's representation of economic forces in Marce Catlett, The Force of a Story, his newest, and perhaps last, novel. I should not have needed the extra two hours. If I had planned better, my paper would have been done weeks ago, and I'd have enjoyed the train ride even more, but maybe I enjoyed it just as much or more because I was plugged into the wifi typing away. I didn't have to drive or find parking or pay attention to traffic. The train corridor is moderately scenic - I saw a few deer, was lulled by the sway and rumble of the cars, listened to other people talking and peeked at what other people were reading. I loved not having to drive home tired and exhausted from a long day of brain work. And I love these lit conferences, although I didn't stay at this one long enough to talk much with other attendees. I missed the evening dinner and social because I needed to get home and pack and leave the next day for the trip to Montreal.
My classes at the college wrapped up well. I think my students improved in their speaking skills and their writing a little, and the rapport between students was good in class, which meant better discussions and more performative speaking. A highlight was a guest speaker, Jimmy Dunne, who talked about the importance of business and communication, but mostly answered questions and shared life lessons.
My Laudato Si class at the middle school also wrapped up well. I have ideas to make it better, but I am going to step away next fall to teach at class at the high school - Redemption in Literature, which I'm inheriting from another teacher who taught it as a film class. I'll miss my middle schoolers, and I love the topic of my Laudato Si class, but I also love the idea of looking for redemption in literature/film. I have four chicks in my garage from the class - we hatched chicks again at the end of the year, and while I'm not sure my middle schoolers even remember what Laudato Si means, they will remember the wonder and joy of hatching chicks. I hope they'll also remember our field trips - one to see maple syrup, and one to the ecosystem lab at a county park run by ND where they got to observe the nesting bald eagles and find some amphibians and snakes in the semi-controlled wetland observation area. I thought it was a cool field trip, if I do say so myself.
So that was May - a full, beautiful month. I also celebrated my birthday while we were in Montreal. I am grateful for the spring blooms and the opportunities to gather and celebrate. At times we lead a charmed life. Although the planning and going and returning filled the days, the month didn't feel as chaotic or overwhelming as it has some years. Instead, while it was full, it felt like one long celebration of life. I am grateful.
