Thursday, October 27, 2011

Amazing and wonderful

Sophie stayed home from school today because she had three huge seizures before 9:00 in the morning. I had two one-hour conversations with two different friends who completely get it. I decided to put Sophie in her stroller and walk around our neighborhood. What's amazing and wonderful?

This tree:



This giant honeysuckle-like thing that positively dripped with honey:



This girl, who is awake and alive after having three seizures:


Some days I don't know how we do it.
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24 comments:

  1. Ms. MoonOctober 27, 2011 at 3:10 PM

    I am glad you have nature to nurture you.
    Are you scared every time, Elizabeth?

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  2. AnonymousOctober 27, 2011 at 3:34 PM

    Gnarled trees, succulent flowers, and love. That's how. I learn from you. I thank you.
    Verna

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  3. EllenOctober 27, 2011 at 4:32 PM

    I've said it before...but you are loving, supportive, nurturing mom...so sorry Sophie had a rough morning. I hope the walk was just what you both needed and enjoyed. Being outside has always cleared my heart and head.

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  4. BirdieOctober 27, 2011 at 4:51 PM

    I don't know how you do it either. It must chip away pieces of you. And yet, that damn sun keeps rising every day so you have to keep going. There is no, "I give up". I wish Sophie, you and your family seizure-free days.

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  5. NoanOctober 27, 2011 at 5:06 PM

    I second what Birdie said.

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  6. HeatherOctober 27, 2011 at 5:06 PM

    So sorry my friend. I just am happy, that in the moments you need it most, the ones that love you,love your family and love Sophie,the ones that get it, are there.

    That you see the amazing and the wonderful, despite it all is what is amazing and wonderful to me.

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  7. Maggie WorldOctober 27, 2011 at 5:29 PM

    You just do it. And you find beautiful trees and flowers along the way.

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  8. Maggie MayOctober 27, 2011 at 5:40 PM

    A gorgeous tree, a mother's perspective, a blue sky, friends, your heart....

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  9. AnonymousOctober 27, 2011 at 6:14 PM

    The way you do it is finding the little pieces of beauty in every part of your day.

    And then sharing it with the rest of us.

    xo

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  10. Denise Emanuel ClemenOctober 27, 2011 at 7:16 PM

    You have a talent for finding beauty.
    And that photo of you and Sophie is especially beautiful.

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  11. AnonymousOctober 27, 2011 at 7:21 PM

    Sophie always looks enigmatic to me. Like she knows something we don't.

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  12. MelOctober 27, 2011 at 7:48 PM

    You are both strong and brave. I can't imagine. When I'm panicked or overwhelmed, I always feel the need to get outside. It helps calm me, being surrounded by the out of doors. That tree looks like it's arms are open to embrace you. And I can almost smell that honeysuckle.
    Amazing and wonderful photos. I'm wishing you more good things.

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  13. Ramona QuimbyOctober 27, 2011 at 8:39 PM

    Oh Elizabeth. Your daughter is so lucky to have you, and thank God for those trees, that sky, that beautiful face on that beautiful girl. I remember my mother telling me once, that as a girl, watching her mother deal with her 9 siblings in a store, "no child of MINE will ever be difficult" and while in college, struggling to teach kids to read, "no child of mine will ever have problems like this." And then she had us, and my sister, and we all learned a new language and learned fear and understood what silence really i, and it was hard as hell and--we keep loving, don't we? We keep seeing beauty in this world. We are seeing it along with you, and witnessing that it is damn hard too. And scaryandexhaustingandlonely. Love from Michigan.

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  14. Kathleen ScottOctober 27, 2011 at 9:03 PM

    You're wisdom, Elizabeth.

    And you're sanity, because you choose to see renewal. You celebrate the good and look for inspiration and clasp it to your heart for sustenance. That's living meditation.

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  15. TheresaOctober 28, 2011 at 1:35 AM

    Prayers.

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  16. TheresaOctober 28, 2011 at 1:35 AM

    Prayers.

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  17. AnonymousOctober 28, 2011 at 3:38 AM

    That honeysuckle tree is gorgeous.

    Hugs to you and Sophie.

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  18. blogzillyOctober 28, 2011 at 5:55 AM

    The human brain is a beautiful and terrible place...

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  19. LeslieOctober 28, 2011 at 8:37 AM

    You forgot to include YOU in that "amazing and wonderful" list. Of course you wouldn't, so I'm doing it for you. I don't know how you do it, either. Grace, I guess. In those coversations and the tree and sky and the trumpet vine and in the shadow of Sophie's curl, just tracing the line of her beautiful cheek. In the recording of it all, the awful and the beautiful.

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  20. 37paddingtonOctober 28, 2011 at 11:14 AM

    amazing and wonderful. you, elizabeth. also you.

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  21. GbergerOctober 28, 2011 at 3:31 PM

    I'm so sorry that she suffers with these seizures. I wish it were otherwise, and I wish it weren't so painful for you to have to witness her suffering, day in and day out. Oh, God help us, Quan Yin and Mary, help us. Please help, and thank you for all that we have received.

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  22. UnknownOctober 29, 2011 at 9:42 AM

    I pray for the war to end .....

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  23. gradydoctorOctober 30, 2011 at 6:31 PM

    Have I told you that you're one of my she-roes? You rock, E. You do.

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  24. AnonymousOctober 31, 2011 at 11:14 PM

    I don't know how you do it either. But you seem to have always the right instincts.

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