Buddha Belly

"Love the whole world as a mother loves her only child." Quote from Buddha.

Clearly, I was my mother's only child at this point in my life.  The three children that came later were never this chunky!

Given this snapshot, one would think I'd have had my come to Buddha moment much earlier in life. I might as well have been the Buddha's child except for the enlightenment part that wasn't there then and ain't there now. And look, I'm already working toward half lotus before my first birthday!

All Buddha talk aside, I absolutely LOVE this picture of my mother and me.  Isn't it cool how I'm looking at her while she's looking at the camera.  There was no need for her to keep an eye on me because I certainly would have floated if I'd fallen out of the boat.  It was taken at my grandparents’ camp at Stoner Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. It was the first of my many trips from the Midwest “back east”. My Mom tells me that during this trip, she and Dad went to the New York World’s Fair – and recently, they gifted me the tumblers they purchased while there (pictured below). Bet those glasses never had sangria in them until they came to Atlanta.

While Mom and Dad went to the fair, they entrusted their first born with my Mom’s parents in Delmar, New York. My Mom recalls leaving one of her now infamous "notes" (that were really pages and pages of instructions) in a stack of diapers so that my grandparents would know what the heck to do with this roly poly baby. I wonder if she was still writing out those long notes by the time my youngest sister arrived?  I think post-its were invented by then.

How about a couple of quotes from Buddha to wrap this up…

"When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky"

(The only time I remember tilting my head back and laughing at the sky was the day I realized how crazy everything was!)

"To keep the body in good health is a duty...otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear"

(Guess I better work on this – my belly is looking like the Buddha’s again. And who knows how often I can count my mind as being strong and clear other then when I’m deciding which bottle of wine to buy?)