God Dust

When Danny left for college, Nancy sent me a text that she had sprinkled him with "God Dust". She says that God dust can be sprinkled remotely and is very effective. As my Aunt Mary would say "I will take it!"

I was thinking about God dust, Danny and my mother while I was cleaning, this morning. Danny is off at school and I do not really know how he is doing or what is happening. It is sheer torture. I wonder if I did this to my mother.

When my mother passed, we packed up her house very quickly in order to sell it before the school year started. A lot of what was in that house, was put in storage and ultimately moved here to our 'retirement home' in Davie, Florida. A few years in, I am slowly letting go of her possessions and figuring out what will stay. Because my Mom, Cathy, was the Queen of Organization (alongside being the Coupon Queen of New Jersey), she had many of those large storage tubs clearly labelled with what was in them. They are currently nested together in the garage. I went to get a few out in order to begin some of my own organization. The first one was totally clean and dust free. The second one had a bunch of dust in it with the added bonus of a large number of sparkles. My first thought was how hard it is to get sparkles out of anything. My second thought was 'this is Cathy Dust'. She is letting me know that she is here with me and even better we are organizing!

My relationship with my Mother was NOT always sunshine and sparkles - far from it. There was so much that I didn't understand about her parenting until I became a mother. The older that I get and the older my kids get - the more I understand and value the things that she taught me. I am so grateful that at the end of her life, we had such a beautiful relationship. When she passed, there was nothing left unsaid and when I think of her - she sparkles.