Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

We had a few hours, first just the two of us, then us plus Andy. I also, in there, got to talk to my aunt a bit (Mom is staying with her, as usual).

We talked about exercise--Mom had been to Aunt Lea's exercise class that morning, and was still slightly boggled at the idea of herself lifting weights. And I'd been to the gym, where I'm used to the idea of my lifting weights, and offered a couple of suggestions on how to keep doing it. (Mom said that her problem with exercise was "discipline": she'll decide to walk on a regular basis, or do tai chi outside of class, but--as I well know--deciding is easier than exercising.

And we talked about wills, and heirlooms, and such. Jewelry, which I mostly don't want--she has bracelets and necklaces, and I mostly wear earrings; she has more gold, and I don't wear that much. I may hand her the gold bracelet I inherited from my grandmother--her mother--on the understanding that it'll come back to me in 30 or 40 years. My brother can have the crystal, as far as I'm concerned--but I've asked for the tiny red ceramic vase that holds three lily of the valley stems if they're friendly. These conversations are easier if nobody is too passionate about "I want that!", and (I suspect) if you can do them when it's clearly long-term planning. There's a pair of diamond earrings that my grandmother somehow left out of the careful list in her will, and Mom and her two sisters are sort-of arguing over it: Ruth, my other aunt, doesn't want to talk about it, and nobody else wants to push her.