I didn't want a huge expensive bouquet, I asked for a small handheld bunch of flowers. My children bought me some beautiful pale pink tulips, and I put them in my favourite dark blue swirly vase. It was a lovely spring morning here in London yesterday, so I sat by the window to the garden and enjoyed my breakfast and magazine. I feel so lucky to have four gorgeous children. Oscar, my 17 year old, bought me this...
I never expected it, so a lovely surprise, and a fabulous book! Now, this was an apposite choice, I've just started a City and Guilds Photography course... more about this foolishness later, when I have time!
The pleasure I got from my youngest, Tom, and his handmade card was immeasurable... I will keep it forever, along with my stash of handmade cards over the years. My girls bought me lots of yummy chocolates, but during the day, we scoffed the lot - such pleasure! An even greater pleasure was watching my twin girls perform in a classical concert in the evening with the local youth orchestra, they play flute and saxophone... wonderfully.
Amidst all this joy my mind keeps wandering to a truly terrible incident in my boys' school this week. A 15 year old boy took his own life... how can this be? I didn't know the boy, nor did my sons, but nevertheless, the incident is haunting me. Is it simply a case of 'There but for the grace of God...' or is it something else? I just can't believe that this child was so badly failed by everyone around him. How is this possible? I keep asking myself. Moreover, it isn't just me. I've spoken to many mothers who didn't know him, who tell me they feel the same as I do.
As a natural cynic concerning Personal, Social and Health Education in our British education system, I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps I'm wrong. Do we simply not listen to our teenagers, or even bother to ask them how they are feeling? Do we treat their concerns as trifling issues, and hurry them along and brush them down, urging them to get on with things? I confess, I find it hard to understand that a young teenager, apparently quite normal, can have such depth of feeling and inability to find anything worth living for... I can't stop wondering how his mother got through Mothers' Day yesterday, and I feel deeply humbled and count my blessings from the bottom of my heart...
Alas, life meanders on. Today I am in a panic. I have not one, but two German exchange students coming to stay with my girls for a week! I can't speak a word of German, which doesn't help, but I know that German teenagers speak excellent English. Phew, thank goodness someone makes an effort, not the Brits, that's for sure! I do know that it's snowing heavily in Munich, and they are going to arrive to a fabulous day in London, with temperatures rising to the dizzy heights of 15 degrees this week!
Now, so much cleaning and tidying to do... and what do Germans like to eat for breakfast? Should I cook them traditional Engish food in the evenings? What if they don't like it? What if they're homesick? One thing is for sure, I shouldn't be procrastinating here, now should I?
Just to keep me on my toes, in a weak moment, I offered, yes, offered, to host a Leaving Party for up to 40 Engish and German teenage girls on Friday night at my house... Oscar thinks I've completely lost my mind this time!
Oh, yes, and sometime this week, before Thursday, in fact, I need to produce photos for my course on the subject of 'hands' - don't know where I will find the time...
Don't forget to hug your teenagers when they come home this evening...
