Bubble Baths By The Bay

Before I post this I want to apologize to my friends that have heard me tell

this story 100 times in women's groups!

We have something that you don’t often see.
It is a bathtub that is OUTSIDE the house.

It is an old claw foot that we picked up

while we were remodeling the house.

It weighed too much to put in the upstairs bathroom

- so-

we did what no normal person would do.

We put it on the patio that faces the Bay.

We even piped in hot & cold water...

That can be shut off for winter freezes.

What fun that old tub has turned out to be!

After the kids have rolled in the grass

and played hard in the sunshine

they get to take a bubble bath outside.

We watch the sun set

and the moon rise.

It is an awesome experience

and the conversation

ranges from light hearted and bubbly to

DEEP THOUGHTS.

One balmy and beautiful evening

proved to be conducive

to some deep bonding ~

a time when one generation

reached across an invisible boundary and

touched the soul, and heart of another.

Ria, with her sweet & whispery little voice,

started by counting the stars.

She was amazed that there were more stars

than she could ever count.

She asked me if that was where Heaven was.

I told her I didn’t know exactly where heaven was

but that it was somewhere beyond this Earth.

She asked if I thought the stars were little lights

that guided the Angels.

I told her that they could be just that.

We started naming stars for the people

that we thought might be angels.

Were my Mom & Dad there, she wondered.

I told her they were.

She wondered if her sister, Anna Bella

might be "up there".

I told her I thought so.

Then she asked me why people had to die.

Before I could answer

Lulu jumped in with her perfect logic.

"Ria", she said, "When you get to be as old as Nana

just about everyone you know is dead!

Besides that~if no one in your family ever died

you wouldn’t have enough chairs for people to sit on

when they came over...

and just think about having to buy presents

for everyone at Christmas time if nobody ever died."

"Wow! I thought-

I never looked at it that way before..

but now that you mention it...

That sure sounds like a logical answer to me!

However, to move away from the thoughts

of death and dying,

I pointed to the full and ripe moon that hung low in the sky.

"Look," I said,

"It’s God’s flashlight that he uses".

(I stole that from my brother, by the way)-

(thank you very much Charlie)

Ria softly, and with great wonderment, asked,

"It is?"

"I think so", I replied.

SweetCheeks looked at me with suspicion

darkening her brow....

"Nana," she said, "Sometimes

I think youah isss just imaginataging things!"

And so I am!

I am imagining that someday

these precious and beautiful children

will look back and

remember a warm summer night

in an outdoor bathtub-

being watched over by the moon

and a Nana that loved them.