Memorable Memorial Day

Some fabric; some string.

A few wooden dowels and a clear sky.

Voila a child’s delight. And mine too.

Actually we all had a glorious kite-flying s’mores-eating afternoon at the beach yesterday.

We had children, adults, even a grandma and grandpa at our gathering.

Everyone took a turn flying the kite which won a round of applause when it was reeled in from the heavens right to the hand of the main kite-flyer (grandpa).

Most of the children wore sand goatees, where the sticky marshmallow became a semi-permanent home for beach sand.

We had a random “whiz” in the reeds by one of our littlest family members who has just learned how to pee like a big guy and loves it! One stubbed toe. One family picture (my eyes were closed – surprise surprise) but the photographer is going to try to photoshop a pair of sun glasses on my face.

Norman Rockwell himself could have set up his easel and painted our crew. Everyone was wearing either red, white or blue…everyone happy and healthy and the backdrop of a gorgeous blue sky with just the right amount of required white fluffy clouds looked fake in its perfection.

Not every one of our family gatherings is this perfect. We have our share of hurt feelings and jealousy, crabby souls who refuse to have fun no matter what you do – but for some reason, yesterday afternoon, the stars were aligned properly in the heavens to give our whole family this gift of a perfect afternoon at the beach.

And so I thank my lucky stars for all the fun we had and for the memory of such a wonderful day to tuck deep inside my soul and savor.

If a bit of fabric and string can soar to the heavens, then certainly our souls which are made of much sterner stuff can soar too. Sometimes it just takes one perfect day to spawn such good feelings in everyone-- that it reminds us that more days like this are possible.

Thank you dear family – with a special thank you to the best kite-flyer in the universe – Grandpa!