lost teeth and open eyes

i had a dream last night that scott looked at me and said "have you looked in the mirror lately?".
so, tonight we dyed my hair.  so long to the inch-and-a-half of gray.  hello nutmeg brown.  and yes, by "we" i mean, my husband and i.  scott's attention to detail and perfectionism comes in very handy at times.  i was sitting on our kitchen chair, half doused in dye, and thinking of how lucky i was to have a man trustworthy with nice n' easy.  sigh.  i'm in love.

tomorrow we leave for Canmore for a week of family vacation.  (we do have a house sitter for those of you scoundrels who peruse blogs looking for unattended homes.  not this time!!  my $60 speaker system and 24 inch television and jewelry from smart set are nice and cozy and safe.  take that!)  we spent the day cleaning the house (my husband vacuumed the couches.  sigh.) and packing and generally ignoring the fact that i have strep throat and that tomorrow we are going to be locked in a car for 6 hours with our kids.  and we leave after scott's finished preaching his second sermon of the morning.  booster juice is really going to have to come through for us.

but after the harrowing travel experience we will be in Canmore (which is basically Banff), with a hot tub and our own little chalet overlooking the mountains.  praise the Lord for time share.  i've got three books and two knitting projects and a jigsaw puzzle.  heaven.

if only i could bring my paints.

my daughter started today by loosing one of her front teeth.  she's seven, and this is only her third tooth to leave her perfect smile.  she spent the day grinning and sticking her tongue threw the hole, or finding a replacement tooth, such as a pea.  it's so fun when your kids experience things that you can actually remember experiencing yourself.  i don't remember toilet training or my first time tobogganing or learning to read.  but i do remember the journey of loosing a tooth.  playing with it until it's only hanging on by a thread, but being too nervous to actually just yank it out.  your older brother telling you he'll tie it to a door knob and slam the door shut.  the strange space left in your mouth that makes your talk funny and bite funny and feel like you have some adjustments in life to be made.  rediscovering a part of your body that you took for granted. 

tonight my friend Simon is home, after dying on a basketball court last week.  he has had a miraculous recovery, but tonight i think of Marney, lying beside him in bed, forever changed by this experience.  not wanting to take a moment for granted, not a kiss or a smile or a word.  this is what pain and change do to us, is it not?  refocuses us on extraordinary things that we have taken as commonplace. to live and move and have our being in these bodies on this earth; we live miracles every second of every day. 

so my prayer for Marney, and for me, and for all of you, is that we would have eyes open to the extraordinary nature of life. 
not out of fear of losing it,
but out of joy for it's beauty,
and thankfulness for having it in the first place
and worship.