to be well known

My sister Rose, and my niece Marian, arrived today for vacation and to be involved in the wedding activities.

Marian is my eldest goddaughter. I was seventeen when I assumed the responsibility of a “parenting role” for the spiritual development of a tiny child. The baptism ritual was to wash the soul of the baby free from “original sin” and to provide the child with additional guidance for their life in the Roman Catholic faith. (I could really play with that “original” aspect of sin since we are all originals, and sin is a point of view a baby does not hold.)

I was a sporadic influence on Marian’s life and we’ve never discussed religion but are probably aligned on our spiritual beliefs. It’s fascinating to me that Marian is living the lifestyle I expected for myself, that of an unmarried professional woman who is a great aunt.

Rose was nine-years-old when our mom got polio, and as Rose is an English teacher and poet, we speak the same language as writers. She’s blocked off Friday of her vacation to help me host the rehearsal dinner that evening. Since we haven’t lived in the same state since 1982, it’s probably the first time we will have done an event together. It will be awesome.

One of the simple truths for happiness in this life is to “know thyself” but one of the joys is when someone also knows you. I recently read a book where the character goes on the journey to know himself, and to understand why god laughs, then the character gains a state of bliss and becomes invisible to others. I wasn’t impressed with that ending.

As Rose unpacked today she handed me a gift. “This is so you,” she said. It is a magnetic listpad with the picture of a young girl, beside a basket of lemons, holding a pitcher of lemonade. The quote on the top is:

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% what you do with what happens to you.” – Anonymous –

It’s nice to be well known by someone when you’re on the journey to know yourself.