Dawn and Birthday

I woke up in the dark and thought it must be the middle of the night, but it turns out it’s really 6am, just without light, because we’re headed into the darkness and death of winter. Now there are pale pink clouds floating by, cast bright against some blue sky, and yet, it is Still Dark. The outlines of houses and the mass of trees all over the hill are coming into form and shape. This must be dawn. I’ll cross it off my bucket list.

In a very few moments I’ll have to hustle myself around the kitchen getting bacon and fried eggs going, by request of Gladys who is finally seven. She has a powerful amount of emotion riding on today. She hasn’t said too much about it but I can see it in her pursed lips and her furrowed brow. She is ramped up, and has been for a week, laughing louder, crying with real tears, shouting ever more to be heard. Her face is grasping rather than eager. I know what she’s feeling, I think. She’s got one shot at this special day. Her siblings are going to be nice to her and notice her, rather she having to make sure she is seen and heard. She’s hoping to float through on a fluffy cloud of Beauty and Joy. But in her soul she knows already that something is going to got wrong. She has already invested Too Much.

I think it will be ok, though. I have a couple of  nice things tucked up my sleeve–the first and best that I finally started my quarterly reports last night and calculated my hours and progress and we can more than afford to have a little school holiday.

I can hear the hoards beginning to stir, so I had better get ahead of them or I will regret it. Have a lovely day!