Credentials

My passport expired in 2013. I am ten months too late to be able to renew it which means I have to reapply for one in order that I might accompany our family on a camping trip in Canada this summer.

So into the late hours of last night I began the futile search for my birth certificate standing under the light of a naked bulb and looking through boxes strewn with damp papers, expired documents, report cards, and trivial things I thought worth saving in 2005.  Not among these papers and pictures was my birth certificate.

Instead, I found this newspaper article which holds far greater significance to this motherless daughter. "Grocers finding upscale shoppers seek upscale food." Beside this byline is a picture of my beautiful, smiling mother wearing a gorgeous fair isle sweater with my brother in a bonnet and cardigan sitting in a shopping cart reaching for a sample of food.  There she is. An upscale shopper. My mom and my brother miles from our home buying interesting food somewhere in Snellville.  It's a small glimpse of an ordinary day in her life.  I've made similar treks. I'm treasuring this trace of of her existence in a world that longs to forget.  

We dropped Naomi off for camp!  I'm so excited for her and all the fun she'll have. 

And summer carried forth for the rest of us at Walden Pond today. 

Verity seized her moment and moved to the top bunk and Abel took over Verity's former bunk for the time being. We'll see what happens when the wind changes.