Blink

Early morning beach

Every year the turtle patroller team has an all night party.  We meet at Margi’s brother’s house around 11:00pm…he lives on the beach…and walk the beach half the night looking for sea turtles who’ve come ashore to lay their eggs.  If we find one, we sit in silence and watch, hoping the moon will give us enough light to see her because flashlights can disturb her. It’s like praying. There’s deep stillness and a quiet beauty that I’ll never be able to describe.  She finishes, covers the eggs, throws a lot of sand around and then heads straight for the Gulf and disappears beneath the waves.

Morning on Venice Beach..photo by Elin Larsen

We were out last night and then, after doing our regular patrol work, we all headed home to bed.

But I didn’t sleep this morning.  I listened to a couple podcasts and then checked my email.  An email from my sister Kim had me sitting bolt upright.  My nephew, Jason, had stepped on a  bottle last night and cut his foot badly..badly enough that when they brought him to the closest ER, they transported him to Beth Israel in Boston. He’s undergoing surgery right now.

I couldn’t stop crying.  I completely lost it.  I think it was partly because surgery is always scary but mostly because, as I told Erin, I could manage losing my mom and dad but  I’m just not ready for anything really bad to happen to anyone else.  Dad and Mom were in their 90s.  Hard as it was, it was time. But it isn’t time for anyone else, especially not the kids.

Jason with my Dad and Annette

And what’s happening to Jason might be rough; he might be laid up all summer and most likely will have some (minor, the doc says) permanent nerve damage but it isn’t life threatening.  But it could have been and that’s what knocked me for a loop today.  That in the blink of an eye, something catastrophic that comes out of nowhere could turn our family’s world upside-down .

This afternoon my sister, Eileen, emailed to say that her Jason (another cousin) has a terrible spider bite that isn’t responding to antibiotics and this beautiful young father of two has been on shaky ground today.  They just decided not to admit him…good sign.  Scary

Eileen’s Jason

day for that family, too.  Good thing I didn’t name either of my kids Jason, huh?

So I count my blessings…again.  Everyone is doing okay, except maybe the two Jasons.  And we loved being in Los Angeles with Sean and Carly.  I cried when he walked down the aisle but then, as Erin said, I cry for everything.

I was going to write about some books I’ve read.  Will do that another time.  And I was going to write more about California.  Will do that later too. I was going to tell you more about our night on the beach.  That will wait for another time.  Right now, I need to think about getting dinner on the table and going to bed early.  And hoping that both our Jasons are doing well in the morning.

Love to all…Hope all of you are having the best summer of your lives.

 

Graduation Day