I had hoped for our Christmas evening with the girls to continue as beautifully as it began(we had ours early because they are on their way to Utah), but that was not to be. There was much untimely weeping and wailing, Tuesday evening at our house with the passing of our beloved gerbil Louie 2(Louie 1 if you know our family history, suffered a possibly worser fate than even Louie2). Sophia gave Gracey's beloved gerbil 'a bath' and accidentally drowned him Tues. night. Everyone was heartbroken as we seem to have seen a seemingly unfair share of our pets go the way of all the earth, and even I shed a few tears... but mostly just for my Gracey's little animal loving heart.
Grace really has always had the deepest sense of love and respect for all God's creatures great and small. In fact she has been often known to throw at her mother her worst epithet, "Speciest!", as I do not value the common house spider as I do for instance her life. She sees this as an inconsistency in my value system, and lack of general benevolence on my part. She actually has the makings of a great Buddhist monk in that regard, except that her exuberance would clearly be too at odds for all that silent contemplation in the monastery. Considering all this though I still thought she couldn't have rightly helped being angry with her five year old sister. After all she had rather carelessly if not heartlessly thrown Grace's beloved, and at the time breathing, pet into the water and subsequently to its death, alongside her own cherished plasticine prizes (otherwise known as the 'Barbie collection'). A meaner sister than Grace would have surely noted this injustice, and perhaps beheaded their ungrateful and unfeeling little blonde pates. Grace truly surprised me though and wasn't at all mad at Soph, even in the moment. She even implored us both not to be mad at her or punish her, because she didn't know any better and was all ready suffering enough. And Sophia was suffering. She felt awful and wept the tears of the penitent, or with at least as much penitence as a kindergartner is capable. I was truly moved by Grace's lack of vengeance, talk about living up to her biblical namesake. I cannot imagine myself at her age being so forgiving of one of my siblings for a similar crime. In fact I can't imagine such patience even now with someone, even if they only inadvertently took away something I really cared about. In all honesty though, this is a mother's version of Christmas miracle!
P.S. Sorry about the lack of mention about other Notable Deaths previously mentioned in the title, I couldn't think of any I really cared about except for Merce Cunningham, whom the times called "the revolutionary American choreographer who made people rethink the essence of dance and choreography, he died on July 26; he was 90".
Grace really has always had the deepest sense of love and respect for all God's creatures great and small. In fact she has been often known to throw at her mother her worst epithet, "Speciest!", as I do not value the common house spider as I do for instance her life. She sees this as an inconsistency in my value system, and lack of general benevolence on my part. She actually has the makings of a great Buddhist monk in that regard, except that her exuberance would clearly be too at odds for all that silent contemplation in the monastery. Considering all this though I still thought she couldn't have rightly helped being angry with her five year old sister. After all she had rather carelessly if not heartlessly thrown Grace's beloved, and at the time breathing, pet into the water and subsequently to its death, alongside her own cherished plasticine prizes (otherwise known as the 'Barbie collection'). A meaner sister than Grace would have surely noted this injustice, and perhaps beheaded their ungrateful and unfeeling little blonde pates. Grace truly surprised me though and wasn't at all mad at Soph, even in the moment. She even implored us both not to be mad at her or punish her, because she didn't know any better and was all ready suffering enough. And Sophia was suffering. She felt awful and wept the tears of the penitent, or with at least as much penitence as a kindergartner is capable. I was truly moved by Grace's lack of vengeance, talk about living up to her biblical namesake. I cannot imagine myself at her age being so forgiving of one of my siblings for a similar crime. In fact I can't imagine such patience even now with someone, even if they only inadvertently took away something I really cared about. In all honesty though, this is a mother's version of Christmas miracle!
P.S. Sorry about the lack of mention about other Notable Deaths previously mentioned in the title, I couldn't think of any I really cared about except for Merce Cunningham, whom the times called "the revolutionary American choreographer who made people rethink the essence of dance and choreography, he died on July 26; he was 90".
