Celebrate the Only You Who Will Ever be You

There is an indisputable fact about human beings.  We are all unique.  Each one of us is as individual as our thumbprints, as varied as the crystalized pattern of a fallen snowflake.   No two of us are exactly alike.  There never has been, nor will there ever be, another you.
I see this illustrated on a daily basis, amongst my four angel daughters.  All of them were born as a result of the exact same mingling of DNA.  They are the only four people on this planet who were created as a result of my husband's and my love for one another.(And like I sometimes like to tell them, they are the only four people who have ever lived inside of my body!)  Yet, each one of them is so varied.  So extraordinary.  So unique.

I noticed this today as I was going through some photos that I took yesterday of my two youngest angels.  They are undeniably sisters, yet they are also quite different from one another.  While my youngest angel is dark haired and green-eyed, my third angel is fair haired and blue-eyed.  AD4 is boisterous and often outwardly silly, but AD3 who can also be very silly, is more reserved and introspective.  Each one has her own personal style, which is quite contrary to what some people believed would happen as a result of my dressing all four of them alike until my oldest was eleven years old.  All four of them carry the unique distinction of being mine and Mark's daughters, yet once you know them, you will quickly notice the differences which are a result of being one of a kind.
As I sat here thinking about this for a while, my heart began to swell with the satisfaction of knowing that this uniqueness which we each behold is no accident.  Regardless of familial bond, regardless of how many siblings or relatives each one of us has, we were all sent here to share our very distinct gifts with one another.  What you have to offer the world is transcendent and unequaled by what anybody else has to offer.  Your gifts can never be exactly matched in anyone else.  And although we may share a common kinship with one another, no two of us will ever be exactly the same.

What I am saying is that you are extraordinary. 

Life in Pictures-Part Three: The Afterglow

After Angel Daughter Number Two's graduation, we went out to dinner.  The day turned out a little differently than we had planned because of my Dad's illness.  It would have been unsafe and unwise for him to drive two and a half hours each way to attend AD 2's graduation, and so, because God granted me a very empathetic and compassionate spirit, I decided to extend an invitation to my Mother's side of the family.(Let's just say they caused me unnecessary pain and grief for months after my brother's death.  Easy target, I suppose.)  The proverbial olive branch needed to be extended and was received with great enthusiasm by everyone except for my beloved brother's wife.  She has dug her way into so many sick and delusional lies that she must now hold strong to them in order to save face.  Not a good way to live life, especially while trying to raise two young daughters without the benefit of their father.  My brother, God rest his soul, would be absolutely infuriated by her behavior, as is the rest of my family.  Unfortunately, she has convinced everyone that she should be feared.  She holds my two nieces as the ultimate trump card.  I have already lost them and my only brother.  She cannot take anything else away from me.  And so, I am trying in whatever ways I can, to find a way back into my dear niece's lives.  I do not, nor will I ever fear evil.  I will not give up on my two other angels.  They need me as much as I need them.  This post was not supposed to be about the things which have been lost, so I will end this train of thought only to say that life does not always turn out the way that we expected it to.  Sometimes we have to fight for the way that things should be.

Dinner turned out to be a very happy and celebratory event.  It felt really good to be with my step-brother and his wife.  As the girls made their ways home and to other events, we lingered over dessert and talked about future gatherings.  I am very grateful to still have a step-brother even though we were not raised together as children.  We were brought together by my mother and her husband about twenty-five years ago.  We are family.

As with the way that things go with three teenage girls living at home, our doorbell rang at two am.  Everyone was asleep except for Angel Daughter Number Three and her Angel Friends.  When they heard the doorbell ring, they screamed(if you haven't heard teenage girls scream, lately, you are very, very lucky) and came tearing up the stairs.  I met them before they woke my husband and told them to calm down.  Of course they wanted me to investigate, and as soon as I turned on the porch light and looked outside, I was the first to observe the newest addition to our landscaping.  As the four little faces peaked out the door behind me and saw what had happened they all started laughing hysterically.  It was then that they took off up the slope because they spotted the perpetrators.  As I stood by myself in the middle of the street wearing nothing but my PJ's, feeling semi-comatose and bleary-eyed, I decided to run inside to get my camera.  When the angels came back, they told me that they caught several of Angel Daughter Number Four's little guy friends running away.  I snapped a couple of pictures because I was mostly unconscious, and told them to go back to bed.  And NOT to wake AD4, who would have been up for the rest of the night planning her revenge.  Teenagers...and hormones...I will survive, I will survive...
Nice job, huh?
The next day, we headed down to our beach house for a graduation get-together.  Notice the Batman pinata which was the hit of the party!  Of course my husband chose the Batman theme because he just knew that AD2 would love it.  AD1 broke it open with her brute-like strength and the kids went in for the bounty!
Teenagers and sugar.  Twice as sweet:)
Here's AD1 receiving an adorable snuggle from her boyfriend, The Cheesemiester.  I love it when she looks like this.  Total, natural bliss.
Finally, we said good-bye to Grandma Dot.  She is Mark's mom who lives in New Jersey.  We flew her in so that she could celebrate the day with us.  It's nice knowing that we will see her again in a year when AD1 graduates from college.  Her visits are too far and few between!  We miss you, Grandma Dot.

And so as life slows down a bit, and my birthday approaches next week, I will be doing some more reflecting about life, love, and purpose.  

On this Fourth of July, as we celebrate our independence as a nation, I wish for you a sky that is filled with the brilliant colors of fireworks.  May you find your corner of the beach blanket and know, as you gaze up into the sky, that you are not alone in this great, big, crazy world.  Never, ever alone...even when you are.

Love,

Debbie

OH, The Places You'll Go!

This is my second born angel.  One of my two middle children.  She entered the world full of spirit and enthusiasm.  She was like a squiggly little puppy who always wanted to be down on the ground, leading the action.  By four months old, she was up on her hands and knees trying to crawl.  Waiting was not something that she enjoyed doing.  She has lived by the motto, "Ask forgiveness, not permission.", which has definitely added a few grey hairs to her father's and my heads!  

But she is lovely.  She is caring and compassionate, and although she is our wild-child in so many ways, she has a great love of home and family.

In less than two weeks, AD2 will be graduating from high school.  For some children, school comes naturally and with ease.  Not AD2.  She has always been the type of child who needed to be doing something.  Being fed information was not her learning style and so, she struggled at times.  She had to work harder because the basic concept of school as, sit in your seat and listen, seemed to go against her very nature.  But she did it!  And not only that, she got accepted to more than one college, one of which she will be attending in the fall.  

Last night was her Senior Prom.  She looked like a princess.  Going to a store and buying a prom dress off of the rack was not original enough for her, so she went up to Los Angeles, chose a beautiful fabric, designed the dress and then found a tailor who could make the dress that she wanted.  Amazingly enough, the cost of her prom dress ended up being less than a ready-made one would have been.  When AD2 wants something done, she finds a way.  One of the many benefits of having a spirit which knows no boundaries.  She knows that she can do anything that she puts her mind to, and she encourages others to do the same.

You should have seen how proud AD2 was when she found out that she had been voted, "Most Diseased With Senioritis" by her graduating class.  We all laughed and laughed about it because we understand that not everyone is cut from the same mold.  AD2 stayed true to her own spirit while doing what she needed to do to keep within the boundaries of what was acceptable.  She did it, but she did it her own way.  She honored what was unique and original about herself.  Maybe we should take a moment to recognize the wild-child who lives within our own spirits and do something to honor our own unique abilities.

May you find a way, this week, to say, "To heck with what anyone else thinks of me.  What do I think of myself?", and then do something to celebrate!