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PREPARE. I was putting the sheets away and there they were. Placed in the closet at the lake house where we have celebrated Christmas for the past 10+ years were presents. Christmas presents for a holiday that is over six months away.My Aunt has always started to PREPARE for the following Christmas the second the previous one was over. She listens to those around her and then finds that oddly specific gift just for them. The discovery of these gifts stopped me for a moment though.She seems to have started, or was farther along shopping this year. How do you...

LIST.'I love you.''I know you do.'Then she exited the car and headed into the hospital.Aunt Sue Ann had sent me her Aldi LIST a few days before. We used to roam the 5 isles of Aldi like it was Bloomingdales. She had started chemo again and had to quit going out and about. She is a fellow thrifter and Aldi lover. We have that in common. I knew exactly where everything on her LIST was and knew we would have just enough time to chat before we grabbed lunch and headed to her appointment.I arrived and she had brought the...

UNPACK.A lost softball game.A heartbreak.The nerves of an upcoming audition.Feelings of mom guilt.The need for something routine and well known to me.A piece of my soul breathes deep and thrives when I am there.I still remember the day my dad had this piano delivered to our house. Over twenty years later I sit down and UNPACK things that I have balled up and packed away.I am not a concert pianist or a stage performer by any means. But to sit down at this piano brings up such a sense of self that when I am done playing and singing I...

KNOW. I paced the living room for the 47th time in the middle of the night. My sister had gone to bed so there was no more texting her about what a contraction felt like He wasn't due for three weeks. I KNOW it never goes to plan but that's all I kept thinking. I had done this twice before and yet it felt like a brand new experience. I had never had contractions. I had never gone into labor. I had never paced a room thinking that when I can't walk thru them then we should go to the hospital....

INVITATION. The sound would always hit us before the smell. An odd, cheerful techno music sound that to anyone else wouldn't make sense at all. If you hadn't made it downstairs by the next song -'A Pirates Life for Me' -you were late for dinner.The sounds of the Main Street Electrical parade at Disney World from the four disc CD collection my parents had was our invitation to Mexican night for dinner. Yes, every single time. Enchiladas, homemade chips, refried beans, and depending on age- a margarita.A song as an INVITATION.So many INVITATIONS that come in all forms. A Papa...