I Love My Boys & My Life
Monday, September 9th, 2024
Six days ago, my eldest son turned twenty-six! He, his girlfriend, and a close friend came to visit his childhood home, giving us all a grand excuse to make conversation, make merry, and make cake!
Now, six days later, it is the day after my youngest son turned twenty-three! Yesterday, he was working all day, so I delayed our “traditional birthday cake” baking a day, which means our house tonight will again smell of warm chocolate, caramel, and nuts (pecans and coconut!).

Yes, we’ve been baking homemade German Chocolate Cake every year since we moved to Vashon Island, and it’s actually become a bit of “a thing,” often requested for potlucks. As is my good friend’s famous cheesecake, another friend’s annually anticipated mushroom soup (for Friendsgiving), and my mom’s delicious jams, jellies and applesauces (which now fall to me, as she’s gone on to what comes after this wonderful adventure).
When I reflect on the good things in life, food sits higher than almost everything else. Why wouldn’t it? Without sustenance, we die. Without community and fellowship, we barely survive. Without love, we wonder what’s the point?
Which is why I readily said “not at all” to a fellow islander, as she passed me in a cafe, only to turn back and say, “Would it be weird if I asked for a hug?” It was my privilege and blessing to hold this woman, and be held in return, as I imagine it was the reason I’d chosen a brand new cafe for the first time and she’d chosen to pass me by at just the right moment.
Weird? Absolutely not. Human? Yes.
On this beautiful day, as the cool mists of early fall moisten the garden and the skin of an island’s worth of amphibians awaiting the return of wetness, I sit in deep gratitude for all that is.
Dear Reader,
I wish this for you, too.
Today, feed well your body,
your soul and your heart.
You are blessed to be alive.
Love,
March