POST 31: "We Can Be Kind"
OUR FIRST PICTURE TOGETHER : HANNAH, FORREST, MOIRA AND ANDREW.
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FORREST, MOIRA, ANDREW & HANNAH, FEBRUARY 1, 2003
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A TENDER MOMENT SHARED WITH ANDREW AND MICHELLE.
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FORREST & MOIRA ON WEDDING DAY - WITH MICHELLE IN ATTENDANCE.
“Like Jesus we belong to the world living not for ourselves but for others. Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness.” Mother Teresa
Compared to New Mexico, there are only a handful of stars you can see from a New York City skyline. There are the other kind of “stars,” the people “stars,” but their sightings for our household have been few and far between. The kids have a picture with Fluffy (the comedian Gabriel Iglesias), but that’s about it.
Miraculously that file of writings from those three weeks survived my compulsion to rip and shred. While we enjoyed New Mexico, Forrest endured the trial of initiation in our household. Homicidal Bill was dying and decided to speed up the process by refusing food while Forrest was there. Then one day, Bob, the kitten who hid for six months under Andrew’s bed, suddenly found freedom to enjoy the sultry Manhattan summer. She decided to straddle an open window and allow a delightful breeze to caress her belly. However one slip and Bob would be Cat Suey in the industrial fan of the Chinese take-out business below our apartment.
Poor Forrest. He envisioned his potential family returning home to find both their cats dead. Fortunately, he was able to scoop Bob to safety. She is sitting here faithfully as I now write. She is a fellow survivor who has come out of her shell in her elder years to remind me, “Old lady, it is never too late to make a change.”
Hannah had a hard time accepting Forrest into our new family but she loved the old poodle, Michelle, that he brought into our little pack. Hannah eventually made a big step forward in declaring Lilo and Stitch as our “family movie” with one of the movie’s sayings of the space creature Stitch as our family motto: “This is my family. I found it, all on my own. Is little, and broken, but still good. Ya. Still good.”
We had an amazing, simple wedding held at James Chapel at Union Theological Seminary. All our friends pitched in one way or another: flowers, cake, wine, taking pictures, and even a, Irish-bluegrass-folk music band. We were up until 2 am printing the program for the service. We included the one of my favorite songs, “We Can Be Kind,” introduced to us by Patrick Evans, the Music Director at Broadway Church. For me, this song brought in a "bit of Barry" and a bit of all the people who helped along the way, into the mix.
Simple kindness – for that’s how I remembered how he was to me as a 16 year-old who was star-struck, yet grieving, scared, and confused. It was a piece that lived within me for years that aided my growth. It got to the place where I could stand next to Forrest with Hannah and Andrew with a chapel full of loving family and friends, celebrating love, friendship and laughter.
It doesn’t get any better than that.
WE CAN BE KIND by David Friedman
So many things you can’t control
So many hurts that happen every day
So many heartaches that pierce the soul
So much pain that wo’'t ever go away
How do we make it better?
How do we make it through?
What can we do when there’s nothing we can do?
We can be kind (refrain)
We can take care of each other
We can remember that deep down inside
We all need the same thing
And maybe we’ll find
If we are there for each other
That together we’ll weather whatever tomorrow may bring.
Little did we know the storms that would come our way.
Notes:
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/805734-like-jesus-we-belong-to-the-world-living-not-for
Give the gift of music to the next generation through donations to:
The Manilow Music Project
8295 South La Cienega Boulevard
Inglewood, CA 90301
[email protected]
Click here to go to the next post or click here to return to the previous post.
Compared to New Mexico, there are only a handful of stars you can see from a New York City skyline. There are the other kind of “stars,” the people “stars,” but their sightings for our household have been few and far between. The kids have a picture with Fluffy (the comedian Gabriel Iglesias), but that’s about it.
Miraculously that file of writings from those three weeks survived my compulsion to rip and shred. While we enjoyed New Mexico, Forrest endured the trial of initiation in our household. Homicidal Bill was dying and decided to speed up the process by refusing food while Forrest was there. Then one day, Bob, the kitten who hid for six months under Andrew’s bed, suddenly found freedom to enjoy the sultry Manhattan summer. She decided to straddle an open window and allow a delightful breeze to caress her belly. However one slip and Bob would be Cat Suey in the industrial fan of the Chinese take-out business below our apartment.
Poor Forrest. He envisioned his potential family returning home to find both their cats dead. Fortunately, he was able to scoop Bob to safety. She is sitting here faithfully as I now write. She is a fellow survivor who has come out of her shell in her elder years to remind me, “Old lady, it is never too late to make a change.”
Hannah had a hard time accepting Forrest into our new family but she loved the old poodle, Michelle, that he brought into our little pack. Hannah eventually made a big step forward in declaring Lilo and Stitch as our “family movie” with one of the movie’s sayings of the space creature Stitch as our family motto: “This is my family. I found it, all on my own. Is little, and broken, but still good. Ya. Still good.”
We had an amazing, simple wedding held at James Chapel at Union Theological Seminary. All our friends pitched in one way or another: flowers, cake, wine, taking pictures, and even a, Irish-bluegrass-folk music band. We were up until 2 am printing the program for the service. We included the one of my favorite songs, “We Can Be Kind,” introduced to us by Patrick Evans, the Music Director at Broadway Church. For me, this song brought in a "bit of Barry" and a bit of all the people who helped along the way, into the mix.
Simple kindness – for that’s how I remembered how he was to me as a 16 year-old who was star-struck, yet grieving, scared, and confused. It was a piece that lived within me for years that aided my growth. It got to the place where I could stand next to Forrest with Hannah and Andrew with a chapel full of loving family and friends, celebrating love, friendship and laughter.
It doesn’t get any better than that.
WE CAN BE KIND by David Friedman
So many things you can’t control
So many hurts that happen every day
So many heartaches that pierce the soul
So much pain that wo’'t ever go away
How do we make it better?
How do we make it through?
What can we do when there’s nothing we can do?
We can be kind (refrain)
We can take care of each other
We can remember that deep down inside
We all need the same thing
And maybe we’ll find
If we are there for each other
That together we’ll weather whatever tomorrow may bring.
Little did we know the storms that would come our way.
Notes:
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/805734-like-jesus-we-belong-to-the-world-living-not-for
Give the gift of music to the next generation through donations to:
The Manilow Music Project
8295 South La Cienega Boulevard
Inglewood, CA 90301
[email protected]
Click here to go to the next post or click here to return to the previous post.
SO THE GUYS GOT TO HAVE THEIR OWN SHOT --
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MY ANGEL POSSE- IN FULL FORCE. THE BEST A GIRL CAN HAVE,
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