The Sweetest Days

It seems as though only a nano second ago my daughter was five years old and we were having our picnic under the sprawling tree in our backyard. I served her favorite, a baby spinach salad with whipped garlic/ lemon dressing and chicken drumettes on plastic Disney plates. We were lounging on a Neco wafer pink coverlet on the grass as she would begin to read while also learning Greek mythology.

The illustrations in the book were reminiscent of Chagall and were beautiful enough to to tear out and use as wall paper {but I refrained from doing so}. I was taking pictures in my mind of my beautiful daughter that particularly sunny California day. It was all too poignant that we were making memories and those memories would be seared in my heart forever.

Of course it was she who chose the first Greek myth that she wanted to learn.It was uncanny that she chose Demeter and Persephone, for their story would symbolize the ultimate separation whether by choice or by fate that all mothers and daughters eventually endure.

We took turns reading the dramatic tale of the earth opening and Persephone falling into Hades and her mother Demeter crying with such sorrow that she shed tears of blood. it is said that Demeter's tears spawned red poppies everywhere as she mourned loosing her daughter.

Of course I choked back my own tears but my daughter's eyes were alive with the cinema of the words. She had no concept of the day of separation that would ultimately arrive.

As all mothers in all species {if we are doing our job well} every finite day is a gentle nudge toward the inevitable "sentence"of letting go. With a full heart I both cherish and celebrate with love every nano second of the sweetest days.