It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, but as you’ll surmise, I am experiencing many new beginnings and some happy returns.
Welcome autumn! Enjoy these brilliant, colorful days!
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N.B. – I have changed details/names in the piece below, but the tale it relates is true.
We stood together, my son and I, his little hand encased in mine, at the threshold of the familiar red building.
I’ll be enjoying a good bit of summer fun with my little ones until July 10th. Please come back and see me again then. In the meantime, when the dreaded combination of extreme heat, exhaustion, excessive sugar and overstimulation threatens to turn all of your children into little monsters (we’ve all watched as our child melts down over the smallest of things), remember this wise parenting adage:
The days are long, but the years are short.
For Juan Mann, sometimes a hug is all we need. I’ve not before heard of the Free Hugs Campaign inspired by Mann, but as I viewed the video of “abbracci gratis” or free hugs being offered in Sondrio, Italy, I felt a tight little knot in my chest. How could this simplistic act of human connection inspire such emotion in me?
I’m an academic. It is what I do, what I know, what I love, but since having children, I’ve created a sacred space in my life for pure, unadulterated, kick your heels up and twirl around, bubble blowing, cartwheel turning, top of your lungs singing, snow cones from the ice cream man PLAY. It’s simple to do really. Just follow your little ones. They’ll show you how it is done in the most simple and least self-conscious of terms. Summer is here and the days are lengthening, and as they do, the eternal call of lightning bugs and frog filled creaks echoes in my memory. I think it is time to follow that call again and to play, eat and love. Won’t you join me for a while?