Grounding

No, I’m not talking GFCI, electrical outlets. OK, perhaps I am. We keep people and things safe through grounding.

My dog was the first official photo to be sent out on Instagram by our lessors. That was about 15 minutes ago. She wore her Greyfriars Bobby collar and brought the book that I just received. Greyfriars Bobby is buried next to his master at the kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. We went there, saw the church, cemetery, statue and his favorite pub where little Skye terrier would go every day for a free meal at the 1:00 cannon to place all the ships in harbor on the same time. The Scots are frugal, why have a 12:00 gun and waste 11 cannonballs when you can make it 1:00?

Bobby has been grounding children for 150 years, by a book and movies of him sitting on his master’s grave for fourteen years. While I’m not in the grave as yet, our Zoe has been by my side for fourteen years and I need to be by hers as she loses her sight and hearing. She has grounded me.

My family has grounded me in a way, one parent said I could do anything and the other said I could do nothing. They’re both gone now.

My husband of over 15 years, a genius, has provided a GFCI for me, that is a ground fault circuit interrupter for those overseas who have more advanced systems. He is the rock my life is built upon.

My brother the other genius is there, intermittently, Over the past ten years we’ve only seen each other at our parents’ funerals.

I think about grounding as I do food, even flowers now. Food requires a French education (see my cookbooks) then an Italian tempering with a Greek je ne sais quoi. Once you know the rules, you can stretch them, even break them. Grounding.

Flowers are not easy, nor is picture framing. Everything requires a brain, an eye, a heart and a soul. Life and loss are not easy. I put up flowers every week for my immediate family in small vases, and always have two to remember Dad, this week it’s sunflowers. Greens help ground my food, flowers, family as they are a base on which to build.

Dad built great institutions and they were always grounded in purpose and perseverance, ingenuity and imagination. I inherited some of that, learned more from him and to think outside the box. I am a thinker and a problem-solver.

My husband’s family grounds me. They think he’s in an air balloon and I’m tethering him. As a joke we have a hot air balloon piece of art next to an abacus. While they’re both magnetized now and on the refrigerator I’ve never been the abacus, I’m up in the balloon. So much for grounding! Dee