Crystals Balls (no not the politician)

Just now I was crying at the end of the movie A Dolphin's Tale as they showed the real footage of amputees visiting the real dolphin with the prosthetic tale. So my 7 year old put his arms around me and this is what he said, "It's OK mom. It's OK. People have different disabilities. Like my brother." These were his words of comfort. You see -to him this was really comforting. Don't cry about this because we know about it already. Also I didn't say "disabilities" -he did and if this had been movie dialogue I would have found it extremely unrealistic for a just barely 7 year old. None of it is what I expected.
My other half is on travel all week. The eldest is staying with his other grandmother, the grandmother who normally inhabits my blog is with her other daughter, and all my other children are doing other things (no need to find an other word). Even the youngest had a playdate this afternoon (pre-movie) and I had an empty house. I literally can't remember the last time that happened. I graded papers, worked on my powerpoints and fielded calls from absent family members. Still I was on my own. I ate lunch with no thought to anyone else's tastes, I went outside witout telling anyone. I wrote a new quote on the front door (it doesn't really surprise you that I write on my house does it?). I didn't even miss my missing half. For almost 5 hours.
Now I am taking comfort from little arms and still sniffling over all the missing pieces because even when they can be replaced it's never quite what you expected.