stairway to heaven

Every time I walk up the stairs in my house it;s like a mini pilgrimage . .I start up the stairs,

take the first turn.. then

Turn around and say hi to my kids. I touch them all.. Sam last .

then I turn again and walk up to the hall.. .. on the way I touch the sacred notch in the railing. I’ve been touching that same place for the last 22 years.

I then stop at the picture of my mom and dad.. I touch dad’s face.. I did it even while he was ill. but now that he’s gone, I always stay a bit longer and say hi

Right above is a piucture of Gabe and Marcia. I’ve been touching Gabe’s picture and saying hi since he passed away in January..

Then I turn to go into our room. There are collages I made of all three kids pictures. I look at them all.. every day.. I always touch the pictures of Sam and kiss my hand as I go by. Sometimes I even kiss the picture.

I always feel better when I get to my room that way

nite all. nite sam

-me

Very nice and slow day.. our friends linda and david are up from endicott, which is really nice. The only thing we did today was another hike up Bolton for the folks who couldn’t come with us on Thursday. there were about 20 flks who braved the wind and ice today to climb to the top.. there was a light dusting of snow.. not enough for them to open..

Max, gabe and I climbed the rickety tower for the biannual ritual.. we took a shot of red bul for our brother and sonl, placed a samstone and light a big aerial burst mortar

Gabe assumed the position… (its pretty scary to be right next to a mortar when you’re 3 folks on a 4 foot by 4 foot rickety platform

We couldn’t get the damn thing to light. the three of us ended up hovering around the fuse.. we used up two lighters.. then gabe had to climb down and find another.. eventually the thing took off.. just in time.. we were frozxen solid by that pint.. and all of our phones had died from the cold.

we came home to lily’s birthday party.. lily had decided to have a photo shoot party and our friend joanne was the photographer..

the yoga space was full of preteen girls and a ton of costumes.. (sorry no pics of the girls.. cuz I forgot to ask them and their parents for permission).. Gabe, luke and I dressed up and took a walk down the runway..