What It's All About, Ruthie?

What's it all about, Honey?
Is it just for the moment we live?
What's it all about when you sort it out, Ruthie?
Are we meant to take more than we give
or are we meant to be kind?
And if only fools are kind, Ruthie,
then I guess it's wise to be cruel.
And if life belongs only to the strong, Ruthie,
what will you lend on an old golden rule?
As sure as I believe there's a heaven above, Ruthie,
I know there's something much more,
something even non-believers can believe in.
I believe in love, Honey.
Without true love we just exist, Honey.
Until you find the love you've missed you're nothing, Honey.
When you walk let your heart lead the way
and you'll find love any day, Honey, Honey. 

While our youngest son was visiting from Boston this past weekend, we spent the afternoon with our wise and loving Aunt Ruth.  With excitement, our son showed his Great Aunt Ruth videos of weddings that occurred at the venue where he will marry this May, one day after his great aunt turns 93.  (Yes, those are Aunt Ruth's laptops.  What did you think?!)  

During wedding show-and-tell, my husband inched his way along Aunt Ruth's "great wall."  As he meandered down her photographic life, Aunt Ruth would look up from the laptop's visual of our family's future to recount a memory from her rich past.  

I picked up my camera to take some snapshots, to freeze a moment that joined our past and present with the promise of a future and found myself humming that Burt Bacharach and Hal David song from 1965, Alfie, and replacing Alfie with Aunt Ruth's name and mine as an anthem for the lessons I have learned from this beautiful woman who always knew "without true love we just exist."  I think I am catching on....

Are you?

Loving Aunt Ruth is Easy

(please click on the image to enlarge)

Valentine's Day is an ideal time to share another page of the forthcoming, Loving Aunt Ruth.  Aunt Ruth has given her unconditional love to so many, and at 92 1/2, as she likes to say, she is still sharing her compassion.  Whenever our time together ends, we hug and say, "Forever."  


My husband and I started a tradition when our children were small of saying "Good night.  I love you," every single night.  Okay, most nights.  With our children grown and living away, the tradition has distilled into the acronym, GNILY, as our way of ending phone calls and visits.  Definitely, a ritual that gets the Aunt Ruth Seal of Love Approval!


Aunt Ruth and I would love to know what you do.  Tell us your love story!  


Happy Valentine's Day....love, honey and Aunt Ruth

"Me Want Cookies," Cookie Monster

Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.  
                Barbara Jordan, the first African-American Woman elected to the House of Representatives                                                                                       

This is another page from the book dummy, and I chose it because, like many of us, Aunt Ruth is busy baking for the holidays.  As I think about this season and Aunt Ruth's way of life, her operating system of goodness and giving comes to mind.  


She cooks to make people happy.  


Imagine that?


Happy Holidays to each and every one of you from Aunt Ruth and Me


(if you would like a cookie recipe from Aunt Ruth, she'll be happy to share.  just leave a request here or directly to honeylazar4@gmail.com)

Just Let it Grow....

Summer solstice. Produce stands.  Aunt Ruth's terrace!  That's the place I go when I long for companionship that is nurturing and easy. 

Like you, I read about aging and the importance of socialization as if this need is more important to "the elderly" than to the "rest of us."  One of the many lessons I have learned from photographing, listening to, eating with, and enjoying Aunt Ruth is that my life is richer, happier, and more meaningful from time spent with Aunt Ruth.  

At 92, Aunt Ruth is often grieving from the loss of a neighbor or a life-long friend.  I share my own worries about loved ones.  She listens, nods, smiles, and offers lessons from a well-lived life.  We comfort each other.  We sit on the terrace covered in carefully tended flowers and enjoy casual conversation with a tenderness born from unconditional love that soothes and warms.

I even take a short nap.  Aunt Ruth watches me sleep.

Ah, summer.  Ah, Aunt Ruth! 

How Do You Know You're In Love?

"How do you know when you're in love?" I asked Aunt Ruth.

"Oh, that's an easy question.  You know you're in love when you can't think about anyone or anything else."

Happy Valentine's Day from Aunt Ruth and me...