Precious and fragile

This morning we decided to go all together at the local thrift store, a place we really like to visit. The store is right in front of a supermarket. As we got out from the car we saw there was a small crowd on the sidewalk just out of the supermarket with someone lying on the concrete, blood pooling around the head. Few seconds before our arrival this older man fell from the steps at the entrance of the market and violently bumped his head. He was there. Still. His legs still on the steps. Not moving or talking. Just bleeding. Several cell phones started calling the emergency number for an ambulance. But everybody else was silent, hands on mouths in disbelief. After few minutes the man on the ground slowly moved a hand. At that point people gathered closer, still very careful not moving his head or neck or spine but softly patting his back, telling him everything was going to be fine. Finally the ambulance arrived. We entered the store quite shaken.
It's night now but I can't get the image of the man out of my mind. It seemed all so unfair. But yet I know that it's not me to decide what it is right or wrong on earth. My thought flying to my far away relatives, how worried i am everyday and yet knowing that here or there, whatever will be, will be. And again my memory goes few days back, a friend with the sad habit of abusing alcohol and other things, how this is destroying his otherwise good life, and I can't help to compare him with the poor man whose life has been at risk ( or taken ? Hopefully not ) because his feet slip on the concrete. But then, who am I to judge ? Who am I to say who is righteous and who's not ? How strange this life can be. And how precious and fragile. And our only hope, and our only way is to live it in love, and for each other and with compassion for our fellow human beings. All so precious and fragile. All made of darkness and light. May our life be filled with love and lived in love. Blessed be and blessed do. God, the greater good, might keep us all in His almighty arms.

Alive

I really need to write it down, to share it, because it feels so incredibly good that I need to let it out and to give a readable shape to these feelings to remind them in the dark moments that will sure come again ( as it happens to everybody from time to time ). For the first time in many many years I feel alive. Not exactly alive, because it might seem that until now I was numb and depressed all the time, and it not true. I feel like if I found my true self again. Like meeting an old dear beloved friend that you lost any kind of contact with and all of a sudden you meet her again. She aged, she's greying, she's heavier, but it's her, and you're so happy about meeting her that all the changes are not important at all. I'm not really sure how it happened. I started meditating daily and praying daily and most of the time I'm doing both at the same time, Christian meditation that's it. And I tried to just soak in beauty, and to practice mindfulness and to be fully in the moment, whatever moment it might be. And I found myself sitting on the thick carpet of my living room, with a box full of fabric scraps, colorful wooden beads, tiny silver bells and my little one freely ravaging through it all giving me all the freedom to let my mind and soul go and I found myself sewing and arranging and playing and having plain old fun with it all and when i felt it was finished I felt like waking up from a very vivid dream, still a bit dizzy, with a beautiful piece of ... art ... do i dare to call it art ? ... Yes, I can only call it a small, lovely piece of my very own art. My. OWN. art ... So liberating. So invigorating. I read lately, that if God gives you a gift, He will give you the chance to live by that gift.... Maybe ... This is what I'm talking about. Welcome back Flavia, here you are, in your beautiful uniqueness. In your imperfect uniqueness. In your perfect God-made uniqueness. This has been a real Easter for me. I feel I'm born again to a new fullest life.

Just today.

Every day is somehow a special day. Special doesn't mean always happy of course. Sometime a day it's just plain hard, like it was today for me. But being hard doesn't make it less special anyways. When the night falls, and the little one is peacefully asleep beside me and the chit-chatting of the older children quiet down, I take the luxury to come here in this little spot of mine and maybe check at the pictures in my camera and find the beauty that lies in an ordinary day.

 'How much does it weight ? '

Far from understanding how a scale works or being able to use it properly, James for sure already grabbed the concept of weight and the use of the scale. It seems that his light was weighting '10'.

Ten what it's not for us to know :)

 This little booklet it's something I'm very proud of. James was sad about something so to calm him and comfort him I made a drawing of Jimmy-Santa Claus (Babbo natale in italian ) since he has been declaring since Christmas that he is Santa Claus and keeps wearing the same Santa Claus outfit day in and day out ( we have to wash it in the evening and put it back in the morning, or on harder night we have to dry it with a hair drier or in front of the woodstove). He was so pleased at it that I decided to make a small booklet for him with him as protagonist. The drawing has been kept ver simple purposely, his imagination can fill the details and I wanted to make it in few minutes so that the magic of the moment wouldn't fade. After drawing and writing I hand sewed the pages together. It's really nice and James loved it '' You did it for me mom !''

 Gaia has been studying the human cell for science, here she is painting a model of a cell made out of FIMO modeling clay

 Of course James was at her side painting his own project ...

 And Milla, after working a bit with her loom-band decided to model something out of FIMO as well.

 Here Seba, the big tease! was working with regular rubber bands in a big sized circular loom. He always has the craziest ideas !

And while we were all working on our projects ... it started snowing !

Oh we do love snow ... but not now ! Not in march when we were ready to enjoy spring ! Not this year, with the very mild winter we had ! Hopefully this has only been a tail of  winter ...

So this was just today.

Pretty amazing isn't it.

Try and look at one of your days. 

Just pick one.

Not a special one.

Not your birthday.

Not a holiday.

Just an ordinary day.

Even a bit sad.

And look at it before falling asleep.

Wonders will disclose before your eyes.

Not such a thing as an ordinary day exist.

As all of our life is just extraordinary.

Blessed be and blessed do my dear.