Gemini Hearts - Gracious One

I love this photo of my sweet little Gracious Tenacious.  She's the older half (by four minutes) of my identical twin girls. The photo just screams Happy Memorial Day to me. Perhaps it's the flag in the background or more likely; it's because this Memorial Day marked the 8th birthday of my girls.

I've been doing my best to remind them to stop growing. To freeze in their current state since they were around 4 years old but much like an cocooned butterfly or a perfectly formed rosebud, they just continue to move, change and grow; opening up to reveal a little more beauty that lies within.

I was invited to bring the kids to a Brewers game last week. With Zen Boyfriend, we are a group of seven. It was one of those business events where your contractor invites you to join them in their luxury suite complete with food, drinks and a smoking hot view just over the third base dugout. Our host would later comment how he thought we had roughly 43 kids at the event and 40 of them were mine.  He also noted how well behaved they were. I think he was being polite.  They had their moments.

Two of my children are like a fire and gasoline. While a moth seeks out a flame, gasoline generally doesn't; however, these two children delight in it. It's the Warrior Princess with her new found strength and opinions versus her brother, The Commando. Quiet little Gracious sometimes get's lost in the ensuing fray or rather I should say, she chooses to remove herself from it.

Hence at some point during the game, I noticed she had been missing for quite some time. When I polled the other kids, they all said the same thing, "oh, she's been up there taking to some strange lady all night". Say what?

I looked behind me and there they were, sitting in the suite's luxurious lounge chairs, each with a hand tucked  under their chin supported by an elbow resting on the arm of their respective chairs, leaning into each other looking as if they were discussing the various philosophies of Eastern religion. I let them be.

When the fire and gasoline had reached maximum combustible potential, I began to round up the troops to leave. We had made it through the famous sausage races, stood up and sang for the seventh inning stretch and had a comfortable lead with a score of 5 to zero. It was time to go.

I approached the woman who had been so enthralled with my daughter and thanked her for keeping her company all night. I told her this little girl was my introspective, shy one and that it was uncharacteristic of her to speak with someone with whom she had just met. The woman then explained that she herself was painfully shy. She came to these business events with her husband but dreaded the random chit chat required.

The woman thanked me for sharing my daughter with her. She said it was a delightful privilege and one of the  more intelligent conversations she had encountered at one of these stuffy, unnerving business events. In that crowded room of overstuffed lounge chairs and even more overstuffed personalities, egos and agendas, two people with quiet hearts and sweet, thoughtful contemplations found each other.

To my Gracious one - I want you to know you may not always get all the attention but I see you.  You are an old spirit, filled with many lifetimes of wisdom, at peace with the present moment and bursting with an inner beauty that draws people to you like a moth to a flame - a gentle, warm, non-combustible flame that will flicker and shine for your entire lifetime.