Happy Other's Day

 Helen wrote "Mother's Day" onto the May whiteboard calendar this week at work, and for word-nerd fun I wiped the M off. Other's Day! I like it better than Mother's Day because it is inclusive. Almost everyone is a mother in one way or another (more word-nerd fun there), caring for, nurturing, bringing into the world something new. Some tend toward caring and nurturing more, and yes, some have pushed real, living human beings out of vaginas, but that's just one way of being a mother. There are many ways. Happy Other's Day to everyone who creates. 

When Helen asked what I was doing on Sunday, I was thrilled I had no plans other than laundry, and suggested we take a hike together somewhere that we could stop and do some drawing. She suggested Speedwell Forge, and we walked a loop along the creek to see fly fisherman slinging lines, and a heron in a tree (and later in the water -- magnificent and stately), and plenty of families with dogs happy to slop around in the muddy paths. It was the perfect day for a hike, and time spent under the trees to focus on what was right in front of us, and try to capture it on paper. We talked, and laughed, shared some spicy nuts and a mandarin orange. She gave me some beautiful, handmade gifts of pottery. It has been such a joy to see her progress as an artist. She's been making pottery since she was 11, and I have some of her earliest works and now some of her most recent.

One of the many things mothers do is insist on the impossible and potentially embarrassing. "Let's get our photo together with our drawings!" We wore them as hats so they'd fit in the frame.