Sometimes You Can Go Home Again

He may have been from North Carolina, but that doesn't mean that Thomas Wolfe was always right.  His famous novel title, You Can't Go Home Again, was disproven again this weekend when former Unity Church of Raleigh associate minister, the Reverend Richard Maraj, returned to speak 11 years after he left the area for greener ministerial pastures (Richard is currently the minister of the Unity Church of Phoenix, which as 1,200 members--which is probably more members than all the Unity churches in the Triangle combined).

This was special to us because Richard Maraj was the minister both for our wedding, and for the public ceremony and celebration we had for my son's birth.  He left when my son was only one year old, so my son has no recollection of him.  But he does have a lovely book, On the Day You Were Born, with an uplifting dedication from the man who gave it to him--Richard Maraj.

So we got ourselves up and downtown to heard Richard's message this morning as part of the 9:00 service at the Unity Church of the Triangle.  And the whole thing felt like those indelible words from the musical Sunset Boulevard:  "Everything's as if we never said Goodbye."  When Richard took the stage, he talked about how much it felt like coming home to be in Raleigh, even though he had been gone 11 years.  And while he looked a little older--as do we all--he still had the same polished look and delivery that helped make him a finalist in the International Toastmasters Speech Competition that he competed in before turning to the ministry.  He looked fabulous, he spoke well with pauses, errors, or notes, and he was both intimate and funny.  Most importantly of all, though, was the wisdom in words he was delivering so well.

We got to share a few words with him before he left--to hear how well he is doing and to catch up on where our lives have taken us.  He remembered my son's name, although he couldn't exactly recognize the baby who is turning into a young man.   And, of course, he couldn't forget me, or my husband (who, unfortunately, couldn't be there because he was out of town with the annual meeting of his men's group--but who sent his love).

Mostly, it was a reminder that the people who have been significant in our lives are still part of us, even when a decade or more passes and people's lives have transformed.  As long as someone is still there who carried you in their heart, you can always come home again.

A Most Unique Mother's Day Gift

Happy Mother's Day to All!  I'm sure many of the readers of this blog are mothers, so I hope you are being celebrated by your family as royally as you deserve to be!  And, of course, I hope we are all honoring our own mothers and other women that have nurtured us to become who we are today.

My son and husband have been sweet to me today, so I've been having a lovely holiday.  But I have to share one of the presents my son gave me for Mother's Day.

Several days ago, as I was heading out on a rare solo outing to my allergist or something, my son asked me if the shirts in the drawer still fit me.  I wasn't paying that much attention because I was focused on getting together the stuff I needed to bring, but I assured him to leave them alone because they did fit.  The thing is, my son likes to wear big, baggy clothes, so he is always trying to steal shirts from me, my husband, and even his size XXXXL grandfather.  So I was mainly concerned that he wasn't going to abscond with one of the shirts that I like to wear.

What he did, however, was to take one of my shirts and decorate it with a Sharpie.  Here is what he wrote first:

Below that, he wrote a huge mind map of some of his favorite topics:

I thought it was such a sweet, cute, and funny present.  Definitely one of a kind--just like him!

He also did a small picture for me in art class, and bought a hand-made ceramic pot from one of the artists we visited on Friday on our First Friday gallery hop in Raleigh (which I've written about before).

We are going out soon for a meal at an Indian restaurant, which we've done for the past several Mother's Days.   But this shirt, which expresses in such a comic but profound way his understanding of himself and his appreciation of our relationship and the joys and challenges it can present, will make this Mother's Day that will stick out for me.  What greater gift could a mother get from a 12 year old boy than something like this?