Marriage Moats-Mary Poppins
Published: Thu, 08/01/19
| Mary Poppins | Caring for Marriage |
 What is it about Mary Poppins that makes us want to follow her? She certainly seems to know where she is going. The jaunt into the sidewalk, the fox chase, even the escapade on top of the London rooftops are all an enchanting mix of wonder and a little bit of naughtiness. Well bred children are not really supposed to play with penguins, or fly up chimneys.
But she can transform even dreary things into frolics, like cleaning the nursery or swallowing medicine.
"Snap, the job's a game!"
"A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down!"
There have been times when the mundane parts of our home have been transformed by a little silliness and singing. Years ago the floor was covered with legos and no one wanted to pick them up. I suddenly declared that only Chara could pick up yellow, Micah would do red, Lukas must only touch blue, Daddy claimed white and I had dibs on black. Suddenly the lines of the forbidden made it all much more jovial, as people snitched other
colors, and kids hollered about it.
Whenever someone felt sick, the rest of us would create a throne of quilts and pillows on the couch. He or she was served royal foods on a platter. I still remember a tray that the oldest two brought to their brother. It held orange sherbet, cubes of cheese, salt and pepper, juice and a gummy vitamin. The time they spent making it all just so did result in the sherbet being runny, but no one seemed to mind.
I watched Mary Poppins Comes Back this week. It was an attempt to tamp down the ache of the twins being gone for a month. I say gone, but that is not accurate. They are still on the planet, just not in hugging distance. For the next few weeks they are studying in France and Spain, which is pretty exciting, if I can get over the detail about being in another time zone. Anyway the movie has a sweet song about Michael Banks missing his
wife, who died. It suggests that she is not lost, really, just out of place. Out of hugging range.
The real reason that it is hard to have my daughters in another country is because this is the dress rehearsal. In a year they will go back to stay. So being a logical person I have started the grieving process in a timely fashion. You know, to get the most out of it. Losing people seems to be inevitable. Whether they move to another country, or drop out of your social circle, or make the transition to heaven, goodbyes are ours to weather. Like a London fog. I suppose I could make the decision to only pick up on the pleasant aspects of my girls being on another continent. They will become fluent. They will make friends. It is marvelous to see them fly into their dreams. It turns out that I can leave the blue ones on the floor. Love, Lori Photo by Andy Sullivan
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