Absolute Truth and Roadtripping With Kids.
There’s an absolute truth about doing anything with kids. Mark me well when I say: There is what we want to experience with our kids, and then there is how we want to experience it with them. NEVER DO THOSE THINGS MATCH UP. I shouldn’t say never, sometimes the stars align and for a brief moment all is right in the world. But most of the other time? There’s a little bit of a discrepancy. Mostly because we have one agenda, and kids have their own, totally separate, ideas. This lesson repeats itself over and over to me, most recent on my roadtrip around Texas last month. It was an epic trip that took 2 weeks. What I wanted was for my kids and I to see new things and share experiences together that would last a lifetime. How I wanted it to happen was by visiting every fort built in Texas, talking all about nerdy history while driving (and driving and driving), and then reading library books when we’d stop at night.
The truth is, we did have a good time and awesome experiences…mixed in with all the other stuff that happens when you have a 7, 12, and 15 year old on board. Truth in this case meaning whining and complaining and overall sour attitudes. I think, in the past, I’ve skipped over all that stuff because the positives more than make up for the ‘negatives’. This has inadvertently lead some to believe I’m a saintly superwoman with abilities that are so awesome, I never have to deal with cranky kids or meltdowns in the middle of stores. This is clearly not the case. At least, the not having cranky kids that melt down part. The saintly superwoman part is pretty accurate. But even I, in all my awesomeness, still have to navigate the perilous waters of the discrepancy between what I want and how I want it to happen. In fact:
*Golfer cried for a good 30 min. before we left because the thought of spending 14 days on the road was too much for him to bear.
*Sassy was refusing to go unless she had an ipod full of music/apps and headphones so she could zone out.
*Both of them wouldn’t budge until I agreed our newly rescued cat could come with us too. The cat no one knows about yet cuz I haven’t blogged about it…
*They spent most of their driving time playing HALO or Assassins Creed in the backseat of the minivan, thanks to Golfer hooking up the Xbox.
*At night I made sure to check in to a hotel with wifi so they could watch youtube videos (instead of read all the nerdy library books I checked out on Texas and other historical things surrounding the areas we were driving to).
*Golfer frequently would look around at the tourist places we’d stop at and announce, “Well, this looks like a big waste of my time…”
*After all the awesomeness we saw and did, Golfer said the best thing about the trip was driving into our driveway because “it meant the trip was over!”
I obviously had a different idea of how I wanted our trip to go. In my fantasy land, we’d have been listening to history podcasts and NPR while discussing Texas history. Instead, the kids were hell bent on denying to themselves they were on the road by trying to recreate their home routine anytime they could. Thus…youtube, xbox, ipod, etc. It drove me crazy. Probably as crazy as I drove my dad when he took my family and I cross country in a VW Vanagon and all I did was read and listen to tapes of the radio station from my hometown in California.
I dealt with my frustration in lots of ways.
For one, by bringing a six pack up to the hotel rooms and pounding a few before chillaxing with the kids watching youtube videos of Halo Reach fails with them. This maybe wasn’t HOW I wanted it to be, but the end result was totally vibeing with the WHAT I wanted…together time creating happy memories. We still talk about the funny stuff we watched (on the nasty motel sheets. It took me a beer just to be ok with touching them…).
I hooped with my hula hoop. A lot. If the kids didn’t want to go anywhere and I did, I took my hoop outside and hooped around to my music.
We stayed with friends in Austin, and while I went out and about discovering the city and capitol building with Naturalist, I let the other 2 decide to stay at my friends house with their kids. This was Golfer’s second favorite thing, “staying inside and not having to do anything”.
If we did go anywhere nerdy and history minded, I budgeted in trips to gift shops and ice cream parlors. Sassy’s favorite memory from the whole trip was getting a machine to stretch out her penny and stamp Jim Bowie on it.
So I had to give up on a lot of my HOW’S in order to stay true to my WHAT’S. If I would have forced Golfer to do things he didn’t want to, then my what’s never would have happened. All that family togetherness would have gone up in flames. By compromising a little (all of us!) we maintained a good win/win balance. They compromised by letting me drag them all over hell and all of Georgia. I mean Texas. In exchange, I gave up on doing a lot of my own cruise ship-like agenda and went with their flow a little more.
I was still a little frustrated by the end of our trip…we ended up skipping lots of things I wanted us to see (like Big Bend National Park) and I felt like I’d failed in achieving both my what and my how for the roadtrip. But then I went through all the movie clips I took on my iphone (8 mm app!) and what appeared was exactly what I’d wanted in the first place…connection, experience, happiness. Togetherness. And even though you can see that Golfer is cranky for most of it (he is, after all, 12) I caught him smiling TWICE. And that is success in my book.
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It’s been a few days since flying cross country and starting a robot adventure in Montreal. So far we’ve been pulled over (twice), stopped at border patrol (twice), car searched (twice), and in between all that seen lots of lots of beautiful Canada. From Montreal we hit Toronto, then up and over the Great Lakes until we ended up back in the US.
Another long drive, around 10 hours, will put the Robot smack dab in Minneapolis, Minn. And from there? Who knows!
I’m in love with this little robot. The kids in Montreal named her Laika, and because my camera lens is her eyes for this project, I have become like her. Seeing things fresh, from a new perspective. Questioning everything, knowing nothing, seeing things for the first time. It’s been really magical. What I’ve seen and what she’s experienced is up on her travel blog, here.
Also, if you go here and click on the hearts, you can read more of her story as she travels.
Not on her blog is all the “being pulled over” and “car search at border patrol” or even “getting a little drunk with a friend in Toronto”….those I’ll have to fill you in on when I’m not on the road, not dog tired, and not having to drive 10 hours.
I <3 Canada!
I <3 the US!
It’s nice to be back 
ùhello from ùmontreal!
ùièm typing this on a french keyboard! ùin a city that speaks french! As you can see, there are some differences…like, ùi have no idea why this keyboard (which looks very different from my american one) is putting weird letters in places ùi donèt want them to be! But ùièm keeping it like this so you can feel a little of the displacement that ùi do right at this moment!
ùi flew into Rhode ùisland and quickly drove through ùnew England, stopping to spend the night with friends last night, eventually ending up here in ùmontreal. We were detained a bit at the border into Canada…ùi was driving and as soon as the Canadian guard at the border started questioning me about my visit to Canada ùi panicked and got all freaked out. I always feel guilty by implication (and the way he was looking at me I knew he thought i was up to something or trying to hid something!!! ùi just knew it!) and was ready to confess that ùi did whatever it was he thought I;d done…in the pantry with a wrench. So…yeah…ùi thought he thought ùi was guilty so ùi got all guilty looking which made him suspect ùi was guilty. ùit doesnèt help that ùi get very forgetful when ùi get nervous, so when he asked :have you ever been to Canada; and I say no, and then later remember that yes ùi actually HAVE been to Canada and so then say ;actually ùi HAVE been to Canada;, they get a bit curious as to why my story keeps changing. They donèt believe that anyone can really be my particular kind of stupid in these kinds of situations, and suspect some subterfuge is going on. So. They searched the car and interrogated us some more before letting us go.
ùoh, and also, ùi got pulled over in New Hampshire (again! for the 17th time) and thought my perfect traffic record was screwed. But interestingly enough, my particular kind of stupid in THAT situation always works like a charm and I just got a warning (again). Yeah, y.all!
Damn, itès hard to type English on a French keyboard! But hello to my high school and college french lessons…ùi figured that .nouvelle fenetre. was ;new window; and opened up another website on the internet. now if those classes would only have taught me how to type on a french computer!
pictures and interesting stories to come later, after i,ve had some rest, some food, and some time to take photographs of the cutest little robot anywhere.
I;m so excited for Robot Heart Stories to kick off tomorrow! Itès being debuted here at the ùmontreal :Festival du nouveau cinema; which is where ùièm blogging from. Soon i will head out into the big city and start asking for the only thing i can cobble together from my rusty french…some delicious cheese and a coat to eat at the library, please.
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I’ve been all quiet on the blog front while being all frantic and spazzy on the homefront. In a few hours I’ll be taking a red eye flight to Providence, RI., where I will hop in a rental car bound for Montreal. That will start a 12 day epic photographic adventure back to Los Angeles…filming a cute little robot along the way.
Why a robot? Why Montreal? Why a car? Where am I going?
Short story: a robot has crash landed in Montreal!
Long story: read all about this project here at robotheartstories.com. Basically it’s a project that
“has paired a classroom in Montreal and one in Los Angeles and charged them with working together to transport a robot back home to outer space. En route to Los Angeles, the robot will travel to whatever destination the students choose, with the classes tracking its progress through GPS. “If the kids want to take the robot to Mount Rushmore to have tea with unicorns, a team—one photographer and a documentary filmmaker (hey hey! That would be yours truly and Mike Hedge!) will physically move it there,”
Lots of people are already talking about it, like in this article, even though the project doesn’t actually launch until the 17th. Lance Weiler has been thinking about doing it for a long time, fueled by his own childhood memories.
“When I was in elementary school we tied a note to a balloon and let it go,” says Lance Weiler, a Philadelphia-based storyteller who’s worked on several films and TV projects. “It’s those kinds of moments,” he says, “where kids fundamentally connect with something beyond themselves.”
Weiler says that kind of connection is missing in our test-score focused modern education system, and he believes Robot Heart Stories, a 10-day experiential learning project designed to spark the imagination, could reignite students’ passion for education.
I love so so so much about this project, and am really excited to be a part of it. But it’s not just for me or the students in the two classrooms! YOU can get involved to, in one of my favorite aspects of the whole thing. The robot is fueled by interest and passion (hello! So am I!) and when the project launches you’ll be able to download your very own “heartpack”…a little robot with space on it’s heart for you, your kids, your neighbors, your coworkers, etc., to write something that you love and are passionate about. These fuel the robot to help get it to Los Angeles, and for every 1,000 heartpacks that are sent in, money will go to creative writing programs in schools.
Look how cute the heartpacks are!
I.
Am.
So.
EXCITED!!!!!!!
So from here on out, or at least until the end of the month, I’ll be updating from the road with my little robot friend. I finished up the Tour d’Awesome just in time to head on out for the Tour d’Robot!
Backroad Learning.
Back to School is starting up again, all around the country. Before 5 years ago, I never would have conceived I wouldn’t be taking part in it…I mean, Back to School is a huge rite of passage in our country. It’s a national event! Stores gear up for it, commercials on TV talk about it, parents eagerly await it after spending *gasp* a whole summer with their children. School is unquestionably the path one puts their kids on if one wants productive, smart, well behaved and successful kids. It’s the fast track to success! The highway to a one size fits all, standardized learning curriculum that has been approved by experts across all fields. All you have to do is get on and make sure you don’t run out of gas…you’ll be guaranteed to arrive at the destination in an efficient, speedy manner! At one point in time, this idea was soothing to me. Kind of a fail safe, a catch all, a safety net.
The problem is, safety nets are only handy if you’ve fallen. Fail safe and catch all’s are designed to work after nothing else has. Highways get you from point A to point B quickly, but skip all the stuff in between. And after a decade of trying to figure out school/standardization/curriculum, I’ve decided that it’s the stuff in between that is most valuable for learning. If you get rid of the interesting stuff, the cool stuff, the unique stuff, the quirky stuff, the off the beaten path stuff, then what’s the point? What’s the good of learning anything if you’re bored and don’t even care.
I’m serious about my kids, but have let go of the idea of straight paths, safety nets, a fast track; and have substituted all that with windy back roads and something more like a trampoline. I don’t want them to be caught if they fail, fall, or otherwise spin out. I want them to land on something that will launch them back up again in the direction they came from. Or a different direction altogether. I don’t want them to have to stop and take driving test after driving test or pay toll after toll. I want them to get in their car and drive wherever inspiration takes them!
Driving Route 66 was a very physical analogy for our learning journey. It took me 6 days on the slower Route to reach a destination that I could have gotten to in 3 days on the highway. But! The experience was totally different. I saw beautiful things and crazy things and broken down things and sometimes absolutely nothing. I got lost and made wrong turns. I ended up at a dead end more than once. Didn’t matter. When your journey is the destination, there is no such thing as a wrong turn or getting lost anyway. The experience drives the learning, and vice versa. I drove a coke truck. Saw a giant wiener (a lot of giant wieners, actually). A covered bridge that was turned into a blue whale. Most of those pictures were stolen along with my camera bag…but some weren’t if they were on my iphone:
I’ll never forget what I learned and saw along the way. People kept asking me, along the 12 day drive, if I was tired. But how could I be tired? I woke up every day excited to see what I’d find, and went to bed at night exhausted but wired, thinking about everything I’d seen. I felt like what it must be like to be 4…you know that crazy annoying age where your kids never seem to sleep? I found out what that’s from. Sheer excitement and learning. It’s beautiful.
This is what I want for my kids. It’s what we do as unschoolers. Get off the beaten path and take the back roads to learning. We’ve driven all over the country, gone to all kinds of parks, museums, historical markers, amusement parks, etc. We’ve meandered here and there, taking our time to investigate and explore thoughts, ideas, feelings, and communities.
I’m happy to NOT be part of the Back to School camp just yet.
Someday they’ll want to pursue a higher interest. Golfer has already started talking about transitioning into a real high school so he can do sports and take the traditional academic route into college. But for now, for this time in their lives, I’m happy that their childhood is uniquely theirs to explore and meander through. I watch them learn not only the 3 R’s, but also about life, living, happiness, joy, discovery, hardship, confusion, frustration, working hard, dedication, and curiosity. All in their own way, doing their own things, driving down their own path. To me, this is not only what childhood is about, but also the very foundation for a lifetime of awesome learning.
So Happy Not Back To School, for those of you celebrating not sending your kids off to school!
And also, happy Back To School for those of you celebrating sending your kids to school, if that’s your path!
My advice is the same for both groups..don’t forget to explore the back roads with your kids whenever you can. Take time for the meandering paths of thought, creativity, whimsy, spur of the moment inspiration. Chances are, those experiences are what they’ll end up remembering and learning from the most!
Tour de Done!
When I started this journey down the Mother Road it was just me, my boots, my dog, my cameras, an idea, 12 days, and the dream of completing it in an old Ford or Chevy truck. I didn’t get a chance to find the truck, but did have an awesome Jeep at my disposal! And now, today, the trip ends…and I’m finishing it with even less than I started with. Yesterday someone stole my camera bag, full of lenses, camera equipment, the Korona, and 10 memory cards worth of pictures. So on my final day’s drive I’m ending this journey with just me, my boots, my dog, a camera, and lots and lots of awesome memories.
And guess what? The one memory card that I do have (since my camera is always around my neck and virtually unstealable!) is full of pictures of….old Ford and Chevy trucks. I’m not even kidding. While in Colorado and New Mexico I felt the need to stop at every old truck I saw abandoned on the side of the road and take a picture of it. All my photos of Route 66 are gone, baby, gone….but my dream of having old trucks involved is, in a twisted way, fulfilled!
What is the lesson in this? I don’t know. The symbolism and symmetry involved in how I left and how I’m returning is noteworthy to me. It’s been an epic trip….a heroes journey of sorts…full of so many profoundly meaningful experiences and meetings. It *almost* makes sense that, as with life and death, the price for the experience comes with a “you can’t take it with you” dictum on physical things. It *almost* makes sense that like a baptism, I am emerging from this whole experience without possessions but with a clear and bright change inside myself. In these ways, the loss of the one thing that I find irreplaceable…my camera bag with everything inside it…is the reflected cost of my growth. At least, this is what I came up with on the drive from Taos (where it was stolen) to Flagstaff (where I stayed over). Let me tell you, it wasn’t a pretty 8 hours in the Jeep. Outside it was gorgeous…thunderstorms in the desert. Inside the Jeep I was a blubbering wreck.
But, hero journeys are full of conflict, loss, battles, and tests! And without a doubt, this trip has been my own personal epic journey. I’d hoped to share it all here via epic pictures and videos. I’m really sad that I won’t be able to now, and that the Korona of awesome isn’t with me anymore. We were meant to be together! The one lens that wasn’t stolen is a rental, which is actually good because it would have sucked to pay $400 to the rental place and not even gotten a lens for it! But when I return it, I won’t have any lenses to put on my camera and it makes me twitchy to think of not having it with me at all times!
I’m still dealing with police reports and pawn shop owners to try to get it all back. We’ll see how that goes. In the meantime, I’ll drive myself back to Santa Monica…back to where it all started. Just like the heroes journey, I’ll return to the point of origin more bruised and battered and a little sadder, but with experience and growth on my side.
It’s hard to say goodbye to the things that were stolen, but that which doesn’t kill me makes me badass.
I couldn’t have named this trip any better than Tour d’ Awesome. Except maybe by calling it the Tour d’ Awesome d’ Epic!
I’m so grateful for all the people who donated what they could to help me do this! The cash donations ended up paying for all my gas. People opened up their lives and homes to give me food and shelter. I got emails and messages and so much love sent my way! And let me tell you, when you’re on the road exposed to heat and exhaustion and solitude for 12-14 hours a day, all of that is like manna from heaven. I feel like I brought all of you along on my trip d’ awesome, because I couldn’t have done it without all the help and support. Not at all. Creating this much awesome is a group effort!!!
So thank you thank you thank you! I’ll try to cobble together stories from what pictures remain, or tell very descriptive stories where no photos are available. Because let me tell you, you aren’t going to believe everything that’s happened. It’s been a crazy 12 days and the best. roadtrip. of. all. time!!!!
Tour d’ Tired!
I’ve lost track of the days. I’ve lost track of how long I’ve been driving along Rt. 66. I’ve lost track of what time it is and where I’m at! This has been the most unique travel experience I’ve had. I don’t have a destination or goal except to drive on the Route, so the driving IS the experience. I have never lived so completely in the moment.
It feels awesome. Profoundly.
But that’s a post for another time, when I’m not writing on my iPhone and dastardly WordPress app!
I’d hoped to update daily, but the rigors of travel are making that difficult! I’m usually up at 7, on the road driving/taking pictures/sightseeing/exploring/chatting with strangers all day until 9-10 pm. Then I either visit with the friends I’m staying with or get to the motel. And then I pass out in a bed, often waking up in the same position I fell asleep in. I don’t stir all night! Frito wraps herself around my legs and dreams dog dreams.
I don’t have much time or energy for anything else. Proof that fun and frivolity take serious effort and energy!
Also proof that sometimes fun and frivolity are the best way to discover your authentic self. I had a moment with the universe, right in the middle of Missouri after taking a wrong turn on a country road. I found beauty, unexpected and divine. I cried from a place so deep inside me I wasn’t aware it was there.
And then, when that was done, I came away with a gift. Because now when I laugh, it comes from that same deep place and the joy is overwhelming.
Sometimes the best thing to happen to us is to get really really lost, and really really tired, and really really overwhelmed. Embracing these things can lead to an opening…a glimpse into authenticity. So don’t be afraid to step into the unknown and unexplored!
On The Route!
The whirlwind of the last few days of the Tour d’awesome planning and the first couple days of the actual Tour made it impossible to blog little updates…not that I’ve had Internet or my computer handy anyway!
I woke up this morning wondering where I was, what day it was, what time it was, and what the hell I was doing there and why. The disorganization of thought kept me laying in the motel bed for a bit before it all came back to me.
Oh, that’s right. Albuquerque. 7 am. Driving Route 66! I still don’t know what day it is. Doesn’t much matter!
The why is tougher to answer.
Often the ‘why’s’ of why we want to do the things we do go unanswered because the things we want to do…deep down where only we know about them…go undone.
We like to do things by committee in society. Our wants/needs have to pass the test of practicality and approval from others no matter how self sufficient we think we are! I can’t tell you how many looks/emails/phone calls I’ve gotten with the same underlying theme…”Are you crazy?! This Tour doesn’t make any sense! Why risk the danger/trouble/cost to do something you don’t even know why you’re doing it?!”.
Well, I call bullshit on it! I’m learning that to trust oneself means to value what one wants/needs without having a good explanation or justification for it. And often some of the best things you will do for yourself will only make sense after you go ahead and just do them. Big things, little things, it’s all the same. Just start now. Clue in to what your authentic self is asking of you and be aware of the need.
Then, do it! Or make plans to do it. Or imagine doing it and think about how it would make you feel. You, not anyone else!
Jump in with both feet. Life is awesome when we make it our own…no apologies or excuses!
Not Enough Hours…
Tour d’ Awesome kicks off in 4 days! FOUR FREAKING DAYS! I’ve already established how unprepared I am for this epic undertaking, so I won’t delve into that any further. I’m hoping it will make the roadtrip spontaneously amazing instead of a failure of terrific proportions.
Before I leave for the trip I have to make sure lots of other stuff is taken care of, too. The kids need to be packed for their epic trip with their dad to a cabin in Yellowstone. The temperature and weather can vary from snow to 90 degrees…so….packing is a bit challenging. Also challenging is my lack of focus and attention to detail. It makes dealing with all my to do lists really hectic.
I have to remember to pay my bills. It’s the first time I’ve been in charge of doing that since I left home for college, so I’m a bit rusty. I manage to pay them, celebrate, feel like a big girl, then forget about them the next couple months until I start getting disconnection messages in my mail and email, then feel like a loser, then pay them, celebrate, feel like a big girl…etc., etc.
I have to make this house spotless so I don’t come back from my roadtrip without clean sheets/kitchen/floors/refrigerator. Ugh.
Cut my hair. It’s getting unmanageable at a few inches long. Back to an inch, follicles!
I’ve got to get my spotify organized so I have sweet roadtrip tunes!
Laundry, laundry, laundry.
Pack, pack, pack.
Make sure I have places to stay.
and about 34958039485039458 other things that are bouncing around inside my skull like rubber balls. I’ve stopped sleeping due to all my building energy in anticipation of this trip, so my thoughts and actions are a bit manic.
Good thing I have at least 3 more full days to prepare!
Except today is the county fair all day, with me riding a hippogriff at the Pageant of the Masters tonight. Tomorrow I’m dealing with getting the kids ready, then riding the hippogriff. The next day, I’ve got to be ready to go for me.
This could be a disaster. I just don’t have enough hours to get it all done.
But you know what? It’ll be a disaster of AWESOME!
I’ll leave you with a little exchange Golfer and I had this morning, I think it will help you all feel so much better about yourselves.
Golfer (who is turning 12….TWELVE!!!….next week) said, “Mom, you know what I want for my birthday?” I asked what. He replied, “I just want you to go grocery shopping at a real store, and to clean the kitchen.”
Lately I’ve taken to running down to the 7-11 when we need stuff. Like, something to eat. Because I’m too flustered to get to the store. And the kitchen, it is nasty. I’m too flustered to pick up at the end of the night, since I come back from being golden and literally fall into bed.
So, yeah. I officially suck. No matter how much you think you suck, it could be worse. Your son could ask you for food and a clean house for his birthday. I hope you feel really good about yourselves now. You’re welcome.
If you haven’t donated to the Tour d’ Awesome yet, don’t be shy! I know the economy is in the crapper and no one has two pennies to rub together. But who wants to rub pennies together anyway? Keep one for yourself and give one to me! I don’t need much! And you get something back…graffiti in your name, a print of one of my photos, a night of debaucherous karaoke, a big ole kiss, and anything else we can come up with! Right now I have enough gas money to get me to Iowa City…thank you thank you thank you…I am truly overwhelmed by how much love and support I’ve been getting in lots of different ways. Donations, comments, emails, offers to host me, roadtrip playlists…I’m verklempt. Verklempt I tell you! No matter how this trip ends, it’s already more awesome than I could have imagined.
read moreThe Repetition of Life.
I love so much about living in So. Cal. I love the weather and the diversity, for starters. There’s always something going on. There’s always people around! Bad for traffic, great for entertainment!
My favorite way to be entertained by strange people, or, rather, people who are strangers (although a good majority of them are, it turns out, strange…) is to go to the beach when the sun is going down. People flip for beach sunsets. As they should! Watching the sun sink into the sea is a transcendent experience. It’s why people flock there, brought together by the power of nature’s beauty. In Huntington Beach there are people from every continent, speaking all different languages, wearing all types of clothes. There are tourists and locals. Men, women and children. Lovers, families, people who are alone, and groups of friends.
For one hour of the day, they all walk to the edge of the ocean and look west. For one hour, the congregating people talk to each other, whether they know each other or not. “Isn’t it a beautiful sunset today?” someone will say. And the person beside them might speak French and not understand, so the first person will make a gesture and smile, and the foreigner will understand the sentiment and smile back. Lovers clutch themselves more tightly together, families group up closer, friends pretend to shove each other into the surf. People laugh, sigh, and take a moment to think. About what…I don’t know. Life. Beauty. Their place in the world. Regrets. Hopes. Love. Laughter. Maybe all or maybe none.
I like when people ask me to take their picture. I can’t help but turn it into a photo shoot. Maybe they’re from out of town and will never be back…in that case, I want them to have the most kick ass momento of the visit. I rarely can take just one shot, I usually mess around with their settings, have them stand different places. If the sun is at their back, then they’ll get silhouetted but the sunset will be bright. If the sun is in front, then their faces will show up but not the sunset or beach. Sometimes I can use a flash with the sun at their back, to show off their faces. I try it all, hoping the picture will be a good one and something they put up on a wall or in a wallet or on a desk or table. It’s just one way to connect, I guess. Strangers, yes, except for an hour. For that hour of sunset, we’re all more than strangers, because we have a common interest. We’re there to say goodbye to the sun.
One evening, Golfer said, “You know, mom, I’ll see lots of sunsets in my life, but none of them ever again.” When I asked him to clarify, he said, “The sun only sets once a day, then is gone, and will never happen again!”
Sometimes the repetition of life dulls us to the magic of each moment. “Look ma! It’s a sunset!” gets old after a while, how many days do we actually stop to watch the sun descend? (If not at the beach, that is!) Not often, because we’ve seen it before. Day after day. But each one is it’s own miracle. Each one exists for a moment, and then is gone. It may happen again the next day, but never in the same way with the same colors or the same intensity. Look around in your life, what are the things that repeat every day? Schedules, kids, friends, jobs, carpool routes, etc. Some of those things become rote things we do by memory or on autopilot.
Make the kids breakfast…every day…check it off a list and move on.
Except don’t.
Tune in. It’s different today than it was yesterday, and than it will be tomorrow. Small changes. That’s how kids grow….invisibly. Slowly. Every day different. Every day new. New thoughts, feelings, attitudes, behavior. Don’t let the repetition numb you to the magic happening all around. Like bubbles blown into the wind…all shimmery and beautiful one moment, and then gone the next. Look for magic. It’s there!
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