Is this your daughter?

While in Chicago two weeks ago, we took a drive down the "Magnificent Mile"...looking at the buildings and the people bustling down the sidewalks...everyone in their own little world, self-absorbed with their own thoughts.

While we were stopped in traffic, I took an opportunity to snap photos of buildings and soon realized right in front of me was a homeless woman sitting on the sidewalk. She quickly hung her head in shame while I was snapping photos of the Chicago skyline...and then, I snapped her picture. I was compelled to for some strange reason. Probably because she didn't look like my image of a homeless person.
Probably because I didn't want to stare, even though I wanted to read her sign...because I suddenly realized this young woman so lost and alone was somebody's daughter and it broke.my.heart.

As we drove away, I reviewed the picture to read what the sign said...and then I zoomed in on that face. That face of the snapshot of her with her kitty attached to her sign vs. that face sitting on the sidewalk before me were two very different faces. The photograph told the story. Something changed her life drastically to give her the look she had on her face that day. And suddenly I wanted to know her story, her name...I wanted to know if she had a fight with her mom and tried to make it on her own...if she went to college and was truly struggling to make it in this world, unable to find a job, if she was mentally ill, with bipolar or some other personality disorder, if she was messed up in drugs or lived a life of abuse...I wanted to reach out and do something...as we drove away I felt a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I felt the pain of a mother who lost her daughter.

...and on that sobering note, I feel almost ashamed to talk about how we only have 4 days before Jennifer and Patrick's wedding. Next week at this time, they will be in Hawaii on their honeymoon and starting their new, exciting life together in Chicago. Instead of losing a daughter, I gain a son...

As I scrub my floors and bathrooms, preparing my home for this wedding, I will think of that FACE, and be humbled.

an Easter Lesson in Love

We woke up on Easter morning to an interesting sight. Mr. and Mrs. Mallard Duck were floating on the water of our pool cover. They bathed, they splashed, they flirted. It was a little like spying on a young couple in love. Nothing bothered them, not even Duke, our wonderdog. He barked and they didn't even flinch. Mr. Crow, (who uses our pool like a big soup bowl to dip his stale bread in...)arrived with his usual hunk of crusty roll. The Mallards weren't going to have any newcomers join in their "spa day". Mrs. Mallard squawked the menacing black crow over to the other side where he quickly soaked his bread and went on his merry way.

The Mallards finally got out of the pool and hung out in our back yard for quite some time, then flew away.

This morning they were back, languishing in the pool, and as endearing as it was, I suddenly feared they were in their mating season and hoped they weren't going to decide to nest in my back yard.

Of course I had to do a background check on the newcomers (via google) and discovered that indeed the beginning of April is their mating season. Interesting tidbit of information: When the mallard duck choses a mate, they mate for life! What a beautiful display of fidelity.

God never ceases to amaze me.