Three years ago I phoned my sister K and asked what I could give J, her second eldest daughter, for her birthday. She told me time, and suggested I come up and spend a few hours with her as my gift.K's answer jarred me; I wanted my nieces to take spending time with me for granted. And so I decided to leave Melbourne and move up here to be closer to them.
Today J celebrated her 5th birthday with a gorgeous prince and princesses party.
Afterwards, Z and I went for a bush walk to burn off the effects of the party food. It was hot and we were keen to walk the loop road quickly. But for Z that meant climbing retaining walls, trees and embankments to find a good stick, an old can, some newspaper and what he thought looked like a wallaby bone.
There's a line in Capote's In Cold Blood that kept coming to mind: "Nancy Clutter is always in a hurry, but she always has time."
1 comment:
Beautiful, beautiful post, LOM. None of us has so much time that we cannot afford to use it wisely. And there can be no wiser use of our time than to benefit young people. xx
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