In Just One Year--a note to Ada

Thursday was a big day for us.   Ada's end-of-semester assembly, for the end of her first-ever semester.  As I watched her, sparkling on the stage in her pink sequins and shiny voice, my eyes welled up with pride and amazement as I reflected on how much she has done in a single year.  Allow me to share an open letter to her with you:

Oh Ada, you are our shiny star.  Here is some of what you have done since last Christmas:

You can now read!  You started reading in February, and you took to it like a duck to water.  You read everything you see, and scour our shelves for new books, and delight in the library at school.   You love narrative, and you love when we read to you.  James and the Giant Peach, Cherry Ames, Desperaux, and the Bobbsey Twins have been so fun to discover and rediscover through your eyes.  All of this reading is thrilling for your dad and me.   It is a pleasure you will never tire of, and one that will enrich your life immeasurably.   

You can swim!  For you, getting into the water was not as easy as getting into a book, but true to your strong self, you tried and tried.  This year, you not only shed your "floaty suit," but you also managed to get your face in the water.   And then at your lesson this Thursday, you swam real strokes, face in the water, no floaty needed.   Better yet, you wanted to stay and swim and swim and swim!  Oh dear girl, you are proving to yourself you can do anything you set your mind to.  We are so proud of you!

This September, you stood up to your fear of meeting new children, and you strode bravely into school.   Again and again, you proved to yourself and all of us around you how grown-up you are, how caring and outgoing and wise you are.  You not only made friends with all of the kids in your class, but you've become known as a go-to gal, a real friend.  You help G. with his shoelaces and N. with his rowdy behavior.   You comfort friends like G. when she is sad.  When E. was rude to you on the playground, you stood up for yourself, strongly and politely , saying "I will speak to you when you apologize, E."  E apologized, and you forgave her easily, explaining to me, "E just had a rough day. She won't act like that to me again."  And you were right.   Your generosity extends beyond your forgiveness, too.    If you have something nice, you love to give it to someone else, too.  You share your snacks and bring treats and pictures for friends (and their dogs, sometimes too).  

There are a million other things you have shown us in the past year  Here are a few more:

• You care for creatures smaller than yourself.  We were impressed with how you cared for your pets, the snails.
  
• You can take amazing photos.  You already know how to share your beautiful viewpoint with the world!
  
• You are brave!  With school, with swimming, with trying things new.  This year you were brave enough to talk to Santa.
  
• You are responsible.  You can get yourself ready each morning, including brushing teeth and putting on a headband!  
  
• You take a commitment seriously.  You get to work on your homework first thing, even on a playdate.  You know that when the work is done, you will be free to play.
  

Ada, you are a wonderful girl, and once again, you have given us a wonderful year.  Your daddy and I know that each year will bring you closer to adulthood, and those years seem to trip away at an ever-accelerating speed.  I remind myself all the time to stop and feel how much beauty you bring to my world and to everyone you meet.  

love, Mommy

Election reflection--

I did say a few days ago that I'm not a pundit or politico, but I do follow politics.   And this election was particularly exciting for me.    

I love that I can measure out periods of my life with elections.  Regardless of who is in office, four years is a long time, actually.   A person's life can change a great deal in the space of a Presidency, and these election cycles make me reflective of what has changed in my life since I started becoming politically aware. 

The first election that really charged up me was in 1992.   I was torn between Perot's against-the-grain, fix-it attitude, and Clinton's progressive message.  After the convention, I finally decided to get swept up in the wave of support for Clinton.   The night he won, I was so hopeful. I was 23 years old, discovering who I was myself, and now that I look back on it, I believe that a great deal of my excitement about election was also tied into the great changes I was about to make in my own life.   

The night Clinton won, my dad and I had champagne and oysters and crowed about Clinton's victory to my mom, who had voted for Bush that year (sorry for gloating mom!).   That night, woozie after the many toasts, I fell asleep with my walkman on, listening to the NPR coverage of the night.  An idealist as ever, I dreamed about how happy the Clintons and the Gores were, dancing on the stage to Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow."   

That rosy feeling manifested itself in the weather itself the next morning--as I drove into Chicago early that post-election day, the eastern sky was flushed with the most amazing sunrise.  Stuck in traffic, I crept along the southbound Kennedy, and I felt as glowing as the glassy skyline that was drenched in pinks and golds.  

I was going downtown that day to "audition" for a model UN class, the class in which I would meet my future husband.   Retrospect is tricky, and memory is wily.  Perhaps my memories of that election are all the more poignant because of what happened immediately following it.   What I do know is this:  because of my own enthusiasm, something did change in me, and for the first time in years, I started to see real Possibility--in the world, and in my life personally.  

If a soothsayer had been in the car with me that morning, and if he had whispered to me his predictions, I would have been able to suspend my skepticism and believe. -- Yes, you will meet your perfect mate.  Yes, you will share your world with him.  And one day, in 16 years, huddled together in your darkened bed at 2am, you will celebrate the returns for an even greater election as they roll in on a tiny computer called an iphone.