The trick is growing

Julia ♦ April 25, 2023 ♦ 6 Comments

Ever seen a pinwheel bouquet? If not — now you have!
My day was made considerably brighter by this colorful surprise, April 2016

“The trick is growing up without growing old.”— Casey Stengel

Let’s just say it had not been an easy day for me. I know I say that a lot, but if you have followed this blog for very long, you probably know why.  Then– when I least expected it– I got an instant sip from the Fountain of Youth.

There was a mysteriously lightweight package at my doorstep, addressed to me. Hmmm, what could it be?  I enjoyed the suspense as I saved it for later. That evening, after Jeff and Matt were in bed, I tore open the lid and have never been more surprised and delighted by what I found inside. Yep, it was a whole BOX full of glittery mylar pinwheels!  Be still my heart!!!

There was this little note inside, by way of explanation:

Ever since childhood, I always loved pinwheels, but somehow managed to own pitifully few of them. In fact, the eight pinwheels I got in that box were probably four times what I’ve had in my whole life. I think I must have laughed aloud even though nobody was awake to hear me. Then the next day, I took about a zillion photos of them from every angle before putting them on display in a bouquet that brought smiles even from Jeff (whose skull had been cut open to remove a brain tumor less than four days earlier).  Our kitchen now has bling!

The generosity, creativity and originality of people who read this blog never cease to amaze me.  Every time I think about how much fun it was to get this fabulous treat, I am more impressed.  What a totally unexpected joy.  Between the rainbows shooting all around the room from Pauline’s handcrafted light catcher, and the glitterfest of these pinwheels, I have mood-lifting color to greet me every single day!

Today, I wish for you a wonderful, jack-in-the-box moment that reveals you have grown up without growing old.

This post was first published seven years ago today. In the years since then, I have shared three of those pinwheels (as Susan suggested in her message– and yes, this is the same Susan you often see in the comments section) but I still have five of them in a bouquet in my craft room, and they are as pretty as ever. I’m sad to reflect that Pauline, also mentioned above, has left this life– but I still have her light catcher too, and think of her every time I see it.

The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.