Sad Anniversary/Happy Anniversary

Tuesday was the one year anniversary of my Mom's death. It sucks not having a Mom. Physically, she's gone, but all I have to do is look around and she is everywhere. She gave me the freedom to be my crazy, driven, creative self. She understood me even as others couldn't figure me out. She instilled in me a desire to always be creating. She wrote me this poem a few weeks after I finished Ironman Hawaii and had a birthday the same month:

Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!

Have the greatest birthday!

You finished the race

With a smiling face

What more can we proud parents say?

We tracked you along the way

and we're so happy to say

That you did so well

and so what the hell

Celebrate for the whole day!

I have a number of things in my house that Mom made--some ceramics, some crewel work and a paper cutting that's framed in one of my bathrooms. I also have a bunch of phlox in my flower beds from her--curiously enough, they seem to have taken over, but how can you treat a plant that self sows so easily and rewards you with sweet smelling pink blossoms year after year as a weed?

I got my love of gardening from my Mom, but she thinks I got it from her Mom. Well, both, actually. Grandma (I never really knew my Dad's Mom, as she passed when I was only 4) could grow anything, and I still remember every time I went over there in the summer, I would quiz her about what each plant was and how to make it grow well. I didn't really start gardening until I met my ex-husband, Ken, and we rented a house that had a weeded-over vegetable garden, that we decided to till and plant vegetables, mostly. But then a neighbor gave me a bunch of zinnia seeds, and my penchant for flowers took off. When Ken and I bought our own house (the one I still live in), it had a few small flower beds, which we immediately expanded, and since my divorce, I probably tripled the amount of flower bed space all by myself.

I've given my plants to other people as well. I always say, "Show up with a shovel and you can take 1/2 of anything you can dig up!" I get to look out of my "office" window into my back yard and watch birds, squirrels, rabbits and bugs doing their thing. Occasionally, I have to go chase a rabbit away from munching my plants or a woodpecker from pecking on my house!

This summer, we get our crop of 17-year periodical cicadas! Turns out I was born in a year when they hatched (1956), so this will be my 4th time to experience them! I bet my Mom was none too happy being pregnant with me during a summer when these things were swarming all over the place. I don't really remember my first 2 times, but I definitely remember the last time they were here. It sounded like being on the runway at O'Hare airport, it was so deafening loud.

But what I'm really looking forward to is running and biking while they're here. If you think you have bugs around you while biking, you should come here in June! These things will be slamming into us people doing our thing outside! Since I didn't run or bike 17 years ago, this should be really entertaining. I am sure everyone will be complaining. Already the newspapers have an article about the bugs almost daily. Some women are freaking out that planned their outdoor weddings while they are here. I think this time I will actually eat one of them, since they are supposed to be quite healthy and tasty. I mean, come on, free food falling from the sky! How often does that happen?

My Mom only had four sightings of the 17-year cicadas in her lifetime. This is my fourth time, and I hope to have at least 2 more!