I was walking around West Seattle the other day with my little grandson. He was securely strapped into his Radio Flyer grandma-powered tricycle; his favorite mode of transportation and one we take everywhere even through the front door of the local grocery store. It has this wonderful long handle on the back of the tricycle that allows me to steer and push while he snacks on Cheerios and tries to pull things off the shelves. I was careful that day, as I always am, to do the double check before leaving the house. I’m terrified I’ll leave without keys to get back in, or without my cell phone or money or whatever. Being responsible for a sixteen month old causes me to be conscientious at all times and I’m finding it’s not as easy as it used to be. Let’s face it, I’m getting old and my memory isn’t what it was a few years back. Yet, as long as I do the double check I’m usually okay. Have you noticed how nothing ever stays the same? Not even the leaving-the-house list? Well, there’s a new item on the list that we simply cannot leave home without, especially in this…
Month: August 2013
The Great Disconnect
Maybe it’s the time of year, or maybe it’s all in my head, but I’m feeling an uncomfortable disconnect from life as it’s always been. Seasonal changes stir up a mild dose of this every year, especially it seems, between summer and fall. Summer is so brazenly out there. It’s the throw yourself outdoors and roll in it every chance you get, season. Summer is full of traditions like back yard barbeques and trips to the lake and being whipped around on a tube behind a wave-runner going thirty miles an hour. It’s a tough season to follow. Then fall arrives and those tucked away, wonderful warm sweaters start looking good and the closet sends all the flip-flops packing to make room for loafers and leather boots. Gather up all those soft flimsy cottons and stash them away. That’s right – let em’ go. Disconnect. There are blue jeans and fleece jackets to cling to now.Wool socks and driving gloves and knitted caps. Yet the disconnect I’m noticing isn’t just the ever changing seasons, the letting go of one year for another. It’s more personal; like letting go of life as it’s been for life as it soon may…
Here’s an Idea…
Having celebrated our thirty ninth wedding anniversary last Saturday evening, my husband and I spent some time reflecting on the institution of marriage. We came to one unarguable conclusion: marriage isn’t for wimps. It isn’t for people of indecision, for those who never complete a project, and not at all for those who value themselves above anyone else. Nor is marriage for attention hoarders, freedom seekers, or any other form of selfishness one can come up with. The institution of marriage proclaims a union for all seasons, under all reasonable circumstance, far beyond the quibbles of doubters and nay-Sayers. Marriage out-rightly defies the attitude of quitters. Those who float down the white carpet runner and pass under the bedazzled flower and foliage arbor bravely proclaim their love for all the world to see and brazenly deem it worthy of a lifetime. Aren’t they sweet, we think as we smile at one another remembering the time when we were in their shoes. Aren’t they naive, we dare not say. Don’t get too wrapped up in the glamor of today, I want to warn them. By this time tomorrow it will be nothing more than a memory and all you’re left with…
If We Build It, Will They Come?
It was a dream, building the house out on the end of the island. We worked excitedly with the architect and our builder friends coming up with the perfect plan to accommodate our growing family. Yes it’s true, they are adults now with lives of their own, but the idea was that they would come and stay off and on all through the summers and eventually bring along our grandchildren, of course. We would have such great times together, as a family, year after year, until we are gone from this earth and it doesn’t matter to us anymore. They would come to grandma and grandpas house and go crabbing and have beach fires at night and fall in love with our salt water lake, just as we have. The last thing in the world she would do is move far far away. Why would she do that? It’s perfect here. And besides, it’s were we are. And the last thing we expected them to do is build a vacation home of their own on the other side of the mountains on a different body of water. Why would they do that? Don’t they know it’s perfect here? And…