This Mother's Day I find myself not yet able to blog about my mom. Maybe next year. But Mother's Day did bring a wonderful trip for my sisters and me and for the next generation of girls in our family. We decided to take a bite out of The Big Apple. This trip was a new twist on a traditional trip for us. The big girls (my sisters and I) have made an annual pilgrimage to New York for years. But taking two tween girls was....shall we say enlightening.
So much to do and so little time, but we tried to squeeze in as much as we could. The younger girls wanted to see the Empire State Building. Saying "no" to the girls didn't seem to be an option on this trip, and I realized I myself had never been, so off we went! The iconic structure is truly beautiful. The day was truly beautiful. Lines were manageable. Cost was reasonable....yes, we could do this! As the Empire elevator reached the seventy something floor and the doors opened, a polite attendant, surely making note of the excellent physical condition of our little group, recommended that in order to avoid waiting in line for another elevator we take the stairs for the remaining six floors to the main observation deck. Again sure that she noted how young, vibrant and in shape we looked, we decided to follow her suggestion. After all, 5th Avenue shopping was calling. Time was getting away!
Too late we learned the six floors were actually twelve substantial flights of steps. By the third flight, three sisters were, to put it crudely.....sucking wind! How could a size 0, a size 4 and a size 6 be so unbelievably out of shape? The tweens, showing no mercy for their mothers and aunts, more accurately trying to act as if they had no idea who we were, guffawed and continued their race to the observation level. Size 4 (The Banker) quickly did the math...."Is it closer to go back down or continue up?".... Third flight.....From Size 6 ....."They do serve margaritas up there, right?" Fifth flight...."Are there medics on staff?" From Size 4, "I think I twisted my ankle." From Size 6, "My shins hurt. Are these my shins (Picture pointing at the throbbing front area between knees and ankles)...I can never remember." Really, an anatomy lesson now? Seventh flight...."Whose idea was this, anyway?" Tenth flight... the ugliness of blame truly setting in, "Who cares what Central Park and The Statue of Liberty look like from eighty some-odd floors up! I didn't sign on for this. All I wanted was a pair of cute shoes." From somewhere up above, tween giggles drifted down toward us.
We climbed and climbed and found stairwell corners to throw blame and catch breaths. We climbed and climbed and quietly cursed laughing patrons jaunting past us. But then, finally....mercifully.....the door from the stairwell flung open. Not sure how, I know my sisters and I had far less than the requisite strength to open it. But there before us....this sprawling, amazing, breathtaking city in all its glory. My heart was racing, my breathing labored, but now for another reason. Bathed in shimmering sunshine, this site of tragedy and heartache now the site of immeasurable pride. The target of a madman's dagger's blow, now the site of inconceivable resilience. The object of such inexplicable hatred, now burroughs of amazing strength. As fate and timing had collided just days before our trip, this city found some measure of closure in the killing of Bin Laden. But today was the day for soaking in the majesty of this city's unbelievable buildings, the incredible beauty of a park's green, "centrally" nestled among concrete and skyscrapers, the lady whose torch welcomed generations to a new life, the mighty rivers flowing all directions. The sight took our breaths....again. What are the lyrics from the country song, "Life's not the breaths you take but the moments that take your breath away." I wonder if George Strait realized those could be one and the same.
My out of shape sister and her out of shape sister and our little sister had this Mother's Day week-end climbed to a point so high we could nearly touch our mother. That also took my breath away.
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