Moments

Based on a recommendation from Brian I started reading this book the other day. I am really getting into it as Ms. Lamott has a great way of mingling the sacred and the profane in her essays. She writes a lot about the difficulty of being a writer. She also uses a lot of quotes and cultural references to flesh out the topic at hand, which also appeals to me.

In many of the essays she talks about her "up and down" relationship with her teenage son. Her descriptions of her son Sam have really triggered a flood of memories regarding my nephew Cody.

While reading this afternoon I was reminded of a really awesome memory involving Cody.

I could probably write an entire book of great memories with Cody and maybe in the future I will. For now, I should probably give a ridiculously brief history of how Cody came into my life...

My brother Paul began dating Cody's mom Julie 20 years ago this summer. Cody was a little less than a year old when they began dating and I vividly remember Cody being carted up to our family house on Knox Street. Paul and Julie married a couple of years later officially cementing Cody's induction into the Buell clan, but he was welcomed with open arms from day one.

My parents were happy to have their first grandchild to shower with gifts and attention. The fact that Cody was not biologically related to any Buell had zero effect on our affection for him.

I was sixteen when Cody came into my life and in the intervening years he has been my nephew, my "little brother", my student, my partner-in-crime...

I could go on for days relaying stories of the fun we have had...baseball games in his backyard, singing "Pump Up The Jam" in unison when he was 6, daytrips to Omaha to have Zio's Pizza when he was a teen...

One of the toughest parts of moving to New York City was leaving Cody and my nieces behind, especially since I had grown so much closer to them in my last few years in Lincoln.

For Christmas 2003 the Buell's hung out at this bed and breakfast in Lincoln. We had a great time chillin' in a beautiful old house and having nothing to do but enjoy each other's company (something that probably would not have had a few years previous).

On Christmas Eve, Cody and his sister Halsey, my dad and I were playing cards...we were having a great time...just hanging out. My dad got up from the card table momentarily, as he exited the room Cody piped up and said "Grandpa...can you get me a Coke?" It was literally nothing out of the ordinary, but in the split-second that Cody asked this question I was overcome by emotion. It was as if the Universe were giving me this intense view of the beauty of the world...

I had this instant moment of clarity on how there could have been all these obstacles to prevent this situation from happening...Paul could have never asked Julie out for a date, our family could have been less than welcoming to this outsider named Cody, etc. etc....But none of those obstacles did happen, instead the Universe had put in place a course of events that lead to the circumstance where this kid named Cody Williams was calling a man named George Buell "Grandpa".

Even thinking about this interaction brings great joy. As I grow older it seems to happen more and more often that the Universe opens up to reveal shards of gorgeousness in the most simple of situations. You just have to be in the right place at the right time and be open to the experience...