Growing Versions

 "If you want to learn what someone fears losing, watch what they photograph." -Unknown

I am a big fan of ignoring children every once in a while.

I was given a gift this week. I was given a couple of days in a beautiful place without kids.  For the first few hours I did not know what to do with myself, so I had a nap.  All great days should start with a well rested head.  My goal was to do less. Less food prep, less dishes, less socializing and less internet.  It turns out being awake less is also an admirable goal.  It made the time I was awake so glorious I could barely contain myself. Now I know how the dew can settle like a tiny blanket fort over the shafts of wet grass in a way I did not know before.

Just when I start to worry that my son is outgrowing fort building, I come home to a tent pitched in the living room.  He emerged from the gauzy folds and informed me that he was the only one who could enter  because he alone had an entrance bracelet (a la theme park), which he had re-purposed from the ring around a mayonnaise jar. With relief, and wonder, I peeked inside. I relished being forbidden entrance. Right now, the places where he doesn't want me to enter are right in front of me, in the middle of everything.  Someday soon, the secret places he will retreat to will not be so visible.

"I am rooted, but I flow."-Virginia Woolf, The Waves

Swam and ate and visited the daylights out of the past few days....every week should start with clothes that smell like campfire and a head full of falling stars.

 Have you heard about The Land  in Wales?  It is a playground that most of us, at first glance, would say looks more like a vacant lot.  Kids play freely there, able to tend fires, jump on old mattresses, play with garbagey things and muck around in the dirt. In other words, it is the best play ground ever.  I love this Paris  playground too. It is simple and unassuming, but I can just tell that its' suggestive cement canvas gets kids reinventing on a daily basis. The fair came to town and gouged the heck out of us, as usual.  It created a lot of drama, a lot of want and hard feelings (teachable moments?) and after forking over too much money, it was fun for about 4.5 minutes and then it was right back to want and hard feelings. After the money and patience ran out, we head back to the free fountain which kept creating fun an hour later. You can't beat free, in every way.

"6. Keep reinventing the way you love yourself." Rob Brezsny, August 7, 2015 Today's way. Sleep in the dark.

I did not used to have this problem, but slowly and surely over the past ten year (post kids), I have had a hard time sleeping. My son, who has been a notoriously bad sleeper since day one, says he "just doesn't want to say good bye to the day". I think this is my problem too. I stay awake when others sleep to visit with myself.  Sometimes, I over stay my welcome and now I am trying to learn how to make a graceful exit from today so I can be better overall tomorrow. Tomorrow, the day that I will have trouble saying good bye to after today.

I came across this this week.  A little impromptu doll house (well actually it is a "My Little Pony" house) came to light complete with a flower bed lined with coffee grounds (for the right consistency and colour), welcome mat and a tiger pet. Once you start thinking miniature, it is hard not to look at a toothpaste top and think, "lampshade", "flower pot" or "wedding cake".

I received two colouring books for my birthday.  They contain page after page of intricate and delicate designs and I was quickly overwhelmed by the endless and intricate possibilities. I have come to discover that colouring is no simple thing. The urge to colour in every speck of white paper is strong. The urge to stop after one petal and rest is equally compelling. Finally, I needed to come to terms with colouring one petal at time. My son was equally absorbed in his drawing journal, no lines to colour within, only infinite ideas to limit to the page.