may crowning

gary says we crashed a private party. well, we wanted to go to may crowning, but it ended up being a mass/awards party for IHM, the church down the road. oh well. it was raining like crazy. i was pulling luci's purple dress on and she said, 'where are my flowers, mommy?' then i remembered i told her that you give flowers to Mommy Mary in the month of may. 'it's raining, luci, no flowers today.' she looked a little sad. later in the parking lot i saw a lilac bush, so i pulled her hood on and dashed between cars with her in my arms. we pulled some flowers down and brought them into the church with us.

the service was really cute. a boy got to crown Mary (i always thought it was girls that got to do it...) he was wearing a royal blue cape. after all the hoopla settled down and the church was nearly empty, i brought luci to Mary. she fell to her knees at Her feet and offered the lilacs. i was surprised, proud, and slightly sad all at the same time. i also felt a little conspicuous, so i crouched down too.

sigh. the sadness comes from knowing luci will grow to struggle with her devotion to Mary, with peer pressures and nerdy parental pressure... i remember when i was in eighth grade and i was appointed by the principal to play the role of Mary at a school thing. i was so embarrassed. i had to do this lyrical dance with my hands folded. you can only imagine. but for now luci's heart is pure and i will do my best to help her stay that way.

or maybe i'm not giving luci enough credit...