Lanterns and suitcases

This year we had five little lanterns on Martinmas... well, okay, technically we were a few days late celebrating, but for good reason. Still, that Martinmas spirit prevailed-- the joy, the beauty, the tending of the light inside of ourselves.... and Kitty Bill was so excited to carry a lantern for the first time that he was practically skipping along ahead of us. He stumbled and fell a few times and had to have his flame rekindled, but that's par for the course. That's what Martinmas is for.

I've been feeling the need to have my flame rekindled for awhile now. A few months ago our family dynamic shifted and things are much harder than they used to be. Kitty Bill is growing up and testing his boundaries. Moonshine is waking up to the world, trying to write and calculate and read, all on her own. And Sunburst is starting to turn inward with the nine-year change. Overnight, I tell you. My kids have shifted, and parenting is somehow harder than it used to be. Maybe it's me... or maybe it's just that Kitty Bill is the smartest little kid I know. He belongs in a comic book-- Mastermind Baby, able to crack any lock/cabinet/or sister in a single bound.

You get the picture. Clever, unstoppable, alpha male child. And he's only two.

So this year, as you can imagine, I heartily welcomed Martinmas and the opportunity it provided to refuel for a night. Einstein and I held hands in the darkness while we walked along behind the kids, letting them choose the paths and lead the way. They marched ahead into the dark unknown, completely undaunted-- wandering off the path sometimes, stumbling other times, but always righting themselves again and bravely forging on ahead with their voices raised in song, all the while.

The day after we trudged down those dark paths, blindly, faithfully moving onward with our lights, Einstein got a call from Switzerland offering him the job. I know! Believe me, it has been a crazy couple of weeks. It was not an easy, flip decision. There is so much to gain, and so much to lose-- we have a really amazing community of friends here. But alas, no job stability, so...

This coming May we're moving to Switzerland, as if it were another path in the forest.

Sunburst and Moonshine are like little beacons of light, bursting with excitement and anticipation, lighting the way. I expect we'll stumble and fall a few times, as the reality of our decision sets in, but we'll right ourselves and forge on ahead. After all, there are "real castles" to see and mountains to climb and oceans to cross.

I can just imagine Kitty Bill skipping along in the airport with his very own suitcase... and yodeling.