So Close ...

SPRING, of course, is the thing that's so close ... yet seems so far away. There are snow showers and hail forecast for the next two days here in our part of Oregon. Creeks are riding high. I told my cousin in Canada that we didn't just pass through the Ides of March. We passed through the "Tides of March." Lots of people were anxiously monitoring creeks around their homes on the web, due to melting snow and torrents of rain. Facebook serves its 21st century purpose by sending out the question, "How are the roads in your area? Are they flooded yet?" "How deep is the snow on the summit?" "Is it icy on Hwy. 47?"

Some trees, however, bloomed last month - like the witch hazel - and the deciduous trees now are beginning to push off their greenish/reddish coverings in preparation for the leaves bursting forth. The forsythia cannot be stopped. You wonder how nature does it until you realize it has no choice. No choice. This morning, in a local department store, I saw young parents with twins - a boy and a girl. I am guessing they were about 1-year. They were sitting together on the back of one of those huge shopping basket/child seat type carts. The parents stood in front with the cashier and they had another child, older, and perhaps one more - I was trying not to gawk - with them. The twins were right beside me, watching as I dumped my silver-wrapped spiral cut ham on the conveyor belt. The little girl solemnly looked at me, then casually reached out and started to investigate her brother's face by squishing it around between her fingers. He started to squeal so she stopped. Mission accomplished: Remember you're with me. You and me against the world, brother. (Just like any brother and sister.) Both the twins were children with Down syndrome. Down syndrome happens before conception. Down syndrome occurs when there are three, rather than the usual two, copies of chromosome 21 in every cell of the body. Instead of 46 chromosomes, a person with Down syndrome has 47. Such a tiny - nearly invisible - thing. Kaching! Nature has no choice but to give us spring, and occasionally a child who's "different" from birth. I guess this moment was especially rich for me since I had watched the the HBO movie "Game Change" about the McCain/Palin campaign and observed "Trig," the actor/baby and heard Palin's quotes about having a special needs baby. Whatever else that movie brought up, it was very educational and revealing to see a family - even if it's only a theatrical family - bringing forward an issue like this. I also happened to be at this department store with my brother who grew up facing some special needs too. Sometimes you get your eyes opened so you are ready for new experiences. Perhaps nature gives us these anomalies, even if they are beautifully perfect anomalies in their own right, to show us how life can go on whatever the challenges and however long we have to wait - femminismo