DR. MAE AND PIGGY-MEISTER CLARKIE

So, today I went to Emmy's house. I took little Eli and his girlfriend Cassie. When we arrived, Emmy took them away to photograph them at various cool places around town while I stayed and played with the kids....how cool was that? For the first 40 or so minutes, it was just Mae and I. She was adorable. There are moments, priceless and unforgettable, when a grandchild will say something so seemingly inspired, so poignant, and so take-my-breath-away-full-of-soul, that I have to stop and mindfully try to stop the moment for time and all eternity and record it and hold it forever in my heart so I can call upon it whenever I need to feel valued, loved, appreciated...Alex has done that for me the last couple of times I've been back home...Strangely, Olivia amazingly and silently grabbed my heart during my last visit and while locking her eyes with mine, reached out and grabbed my finger-all this while I was telling her how much I loved her...wow.... and today (which isn't the first for this kiddo) Mae knocked me down....pure and simple....knocked me down.

We waved the car away, shut the door, and as soon as our hands lifted away from that doorknob, our eyes met, twinkled, and we actually ran to the great room, laughing with her saying, "Okay, let me show you my hip hop dance moves" and me saying "Cool" (because apparently I'm a big four-year-old). Then she stopped, smile disappeared, and she looked me dead on in the eyes and said this: "Moo, I really love it when you play with me because we have so much fun and I didn't want to dance in front of little Eli because I thought he might laugh at me and anyway, I miss you when you're in Palm Springs and when you come back tomorrow and you spend the night with me and you go to Church with me on Sunday, I want you to sleep with me in my bed because I want you to."

Now, that little run-on sentence doesn't mean anything to anyone else, but let me tell you something---that sentence meant the world to me...Mae's bed is sacred space and no one...NO ONE shares it with her except her brother and sometimes her mom...so for me to be INVITED to spend the night with her was an honor in deed...and what I didn't communicate was that the longer that sentence went on...with her little lisp....and her bouncy curls....and her big eyes...tears were forming...and her mouth was beginning to tremble....and I got the message loud and clear that I had spent far too long away from that special place and those special people...message received...loud and clear...


And then Clarkie woke up...okay, I kinda sorta went in there and said, "Hey Clarkie! Are you awake yet? HUH?" And then I came back downstairs and let nature take its course. Anyway, while he was wrestling around, Mae and I were playing "Dr. Mae". She sits at her desk and "doctors" me, her patient. I had a hurt knee. She writes on several different pieces of paper, tells me to "go over there and wait for someone to give you a scan" then I have to go back and get more paper, then I have to take paper home and color in a square a day and come back every day to see her. It's quite involved.

Anyway, Clarkie came down and he became a patient as well. He had a sick ear.
No one escapes Dr. Mae. It was "To the couch young man. You need medicine!"


I was on the other couch. I asked Clark if he wanted to share a couch. He like the idea.
But soon, he wanted to make a break for it. He slipped down and decided to leave against medical advice. He didn't care. He's a rebel.



Dr. Mae was all over it. No way Mister. Back on that couch....that ear will get fixed DESPITE your lack of compliance!!!


But it's hard to keep a good man down....go Clarkie go....

Later on in the afternoon, I should note, I was just drowsily sitting around on the couch in a dreamy state of joy, watching the kids play and interact and eat and just "be"...yea, that is SO me, right there...Ms. Perpetual Alpha State....*for my meditating friends*...anyway, I guess I wasn't actively participating with Clark....wasn't looking at him or engaging him...and all of a sudden...BING!!!....I got beaned in the head with a stuffed penguin.....I got shocked out of my dreamland state, looked around, and there was Clarkie with that slow motion grin....and he waved at me.....you could have knocked me over with a feather.....

And thus ended Moo's day with the kids over the mountain...The land of Mae and the honey....