Tuesday 1 November 2011

Joie de Vivre

This photo was rescued by Granny
from the bottom of a drawer in her kitchen.

I am sitting with MissM on my lap
in a country churchyard after a wedding.
MissM is wearing a tiny pink seersucker dress
and I know that it is before she could crawl
because her knees are dimpled and clean.

I think of the photograph MissM has just sent
of new plum suede shoes with 4" heels.
She will wear them to two parties this weekend.
They are dancing shoes.

I am sure that if you had asked me then
what I wished for my tiny daughter
I would have been unable to articulate my dream.
There are so many sensible things to wish for:
happiness, health, intelligence, common sense.

But what I wanted, more than anything else,
was a daughter who had the confidence
to go dancing in a black Karen Millen dress
and pair of plum suede shoes with 4" heels.

I think you will agree that I have been lucky.

18 comments:

  1. You have been blessed. All the way from dimpled knees to plum high heels.
    I too would have wished for daughters with the confidence to dance 'til the small hours, kicking off their shoes to walk home barefoot in the dawn. And I am blessed to have two of them :D

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  2. Oh gosh, that picture reminds me of one that I have that is so similar. Now I have made myself cry. I shall compose myself and return later. Forgive me, please.

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  3. You are very nostalgic this week.

    I'd be envious if I didn't like you so much.
    You are more than lucky, you are blessed.
    But you know that.

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  4. Oh! MrsM...MissM is blessed to have all of you. What a treasure, this photo, this post.

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  5. I have loved these last few posts. I am tempted to peruse the archives. Maybe this weekend.

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  6. I often think now of what I will face in the future and think about the past. Sorry my thoughts are VERY contorted ...

    I look at your family as yet another example of what a real family should be. There's everything you need, everything I'd want for me and my loved ones.

    Thank you Alice for being here.

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  7. Yes, very blessed! Love the picture.

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  8. Paola - sounds as if you may have some rose-tinted spectacles to hand - there is a degree of expurgation exercised I think. Judicious redaction by MrsM I think is probably the right expression.

    I could reveal what really goes on for a coffee cake of course ...

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  9. Lovely post. I'm not sure I hoped so far ahead. I do remember hoping fervently that my son would read for pleasure. If it was only comics, then so be it, so long as he read them - and that's what I got, and still have, an avid reader, capable of getting lost in a book. (And not just comics!)

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  10. Lovely hats - both of you. You have been very blessed.

    The glory of Miss M's shoes is in the plum AND the suede AND the 4" heels. Any one of those would have been cool, but all together is quite something.

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  11. I think plum suede 4 inch heels just about the most perfect thing to wish for Miss M, whether you knew it at the time or not.

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  12. That MissM!!! I do so love living vicariously through the generation that has been nudged in all the right directions. Good job, Alice, do take credit when credit is due. As a college student my daughter had a penchant for driving into Manhattan. While I was aghast at the thought, she promptly informed me she had no intention of living her life intimidated by New York City. Just another similarity to be noted between The Bride and The Lovely MissM.
    P.S. to MrM. So what does it take to get a coffee cake 'round there? I'll take the bait!

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  13. oh, P.S. Alice, you are stunning, absolutely stunning... and the Little Lovely MissM, is it any wonder she is who she is? I think not!

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  14. Indeed--a well-deserved congratulations, proud mama. I myself do not have the confidence for such shoes, and never have.

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  15. Such a fabulous photo.

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  16. And she can dance in them, you say, without taking them off and groaning and wanting a cup of tea?

    Sometimes I do resent the young.

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  17. I love this post and wish I still went dancing in plum suede high heels!

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  18. after finally figuring out a way to comment on you posts ( I open the comment box in a new window and it works....go figure?? ) I am going back and re-reading and commenting so you will probably get a rush of little quirks from me....

    Yes you are blessed but so is she to have you as her mum xx

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