Mother May I

My kids are amazing.

My nails are done.

I have the Pediatric Congress- 3 nights in Florence!!!next week and I'm busy with preparations because we just added a poster presentation. There are bills to pay, mouths to feed, a house to clean, families to help and a million things to fix- all of the lights seem to be blowing out at once, but...

It's okay.
I've been thinking a lot about trees lately. The one thing I always love about going home is that my house is surrounded by woods, which means big, tall, sprawling trees. None of that where I live here in Italy, but at this moment life is a tree.
A man from the Italian forum sent me an email that clearly explained the difference between hearing aids and cochlear implants. He said that with hearing aids, when the word "Albero" (tree) was said, he only heard, "Ah-Eh-Oh" but with the cochlear implant he hears, "A-L-B-E-R-O". He is now trying to identify sound and transform it into comprehension.

I started teaching the Tuscan Pediatricians again and use my favorite quote: "When facing a single tree, if you look at a single one of its red leaves, you will not see all the others. When the eye is not set on one leaf, and you face the tree with nothing at all in mind, any number of leaves are visible to the eye without limit. But if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there."
(Takuan Soto)

I find myself obsessed with leaves and branches right now and it has nothing to do with Fall.

*Smile*

The roots have been planted.
And now...I am sipping on a homemade nutella milkshake and watching the tree grow.

In the end, life is just a big, fat game of "Mother-May-I."

And I am the Mother.