The last few days have been like ice skating over Time… sliding quickly from moment to moment with blurs of color passing all around me.

Today was not much different.

Barry and I got up very early and headed to Audrey’s house, where she was getting all the last details ready for her trip to Los Angeles and the People’s Choice Awards.  When Barry and Audrey headed to the airport, I packed her two littlest guys, Benjamin and Henry, into my car and headed to my house for the morning.  We played a little duck game that I can’t even remember the name.  I helped them play with their Webkinz pets on my computers.  Ben is getting very good at it and Henry points at the screen and names things!  They brushed their teeth… 3 times. They “helped” with laundry.  They ate donuts and drank chocolate milk (don’t tell Mommy and Daddy, please).  We watched Ruby & Max on Nick while eating fish crackers.

When their Daddy picked the little guys up at noon, I headed to the hospital to visit my Mom.  We had a very nice visit as she finished her lunch.  She was facing the window and I could see the depth, wisdom and beauty of her smoky gray eyes as they danced in the daylight’s reflections.  It was a wonderful and peaceful hour.  My Mom knew I was running today and she kept insisting that I “go do my run.”

I did.  I drove home, changed into my running things and ran for 50 minutes.  I forgot my iPod because I was in such a rush… and I took a new route because of ice and snow.  I didn’t like the new route.  It was cold and busy and it felt odd and sad for some reason.  Maybe it was because I was thinking too much.  I changed course and felt like I was flying…

After my run, I drove to Audrey’s house again and picked up the oldest two guys, William and Alexander.  We came back to my house and made puzzles on my kitchen counter as I made American Chop Suey.  The guys requested chocolate milk “with Nestle’s, not Hersey’s”… and I happily obliged.  When Pop-up came home, the guys decided that Pop-up’s pancakes sounded much more enticing than Grandma’s American Chop Suey.  Pop-up happily obliged.   We ate dinner and it was time to head back to the hospital.  William asked at least two million questions about Grandma Rita and her hospital and her “cold”…

Then Barry and I spent some time at the hospital with my Mom tonight.  She was tired, but feeling good about her progress. She loves the nurses and the food and her window. She had a little incident… being left in a hallway for an hour after an MRI because transport was busy.  This shook her up quite a bit, but Barry and I talked her into putting in the past.  When she became very sleepy, we left for home.

So why the title of this post?  Because even in the midst of all the busy-ness and responsibility and helping others… even when the moments blend together and life is a giant ice-skating rink… there are some moments that let us know what love is.  That moment came this morning when Henry, who is 18 months old, took his treasured “blankee” and gently placed it over big, happy-go-lucky Seth, saying, “Here, puppy,” while patting the blankee on Seth with tender love.

This moment told me that Henry knows great love and warmth and tenderness.  He knows that this love surrounds him.  And he was sharing this great love and warmth and tenderness in the most simple and innocent of ways.  Of course, Sethy was trying his best to show his own love by accepting this great gift…

It’s the love.  The love always comes through, even in the midst of the most swift passing of Time.  And it always seems to come in the purest moments…