Graduation Magic

The high school graduation of your child is magic! It's proud, exciting, happy, exhausting, expensive, and heart-breaking all at the same time. Today, I am physically, mentally, financially, and emotionally exhausted. But, I am so, so, so proud! What a wonderful daughter I have in so many ways.

The ceremony itself wasn't anything extraordinary. In fact, it was probably like hundreds of ceremonies across the country. But something interesting did happen. First, though, I need to explain. My grandma was a watercolor painter and liked to paint birds. After she passed away, I read a story about a lady who believed that her mother visited her in the form of a butterfly. Everytime she saw a butterfly, she felt it was her mother. One day, right after Grandma died, I was sitting in the cafe at work by the window and a little bird kept knocking against the window - like it was trying to get my attention. When I really looked at it - it looked just like the chickadees my grandma used to paint! So, I got it in my head that my grandma was visiting me in the form of a bird. Right before the graduation ceremony started, there was a slight commotion and many people in the audience started pointing to a bird flying around the arena. To them, it was a funny distraction. But to me, it was so much more. It was Grandma. She loved Mackenzie so much - I knew she just had to be there!