Archives for September 2011

All I remember was that my iphone was sitting on the console between the driver and passenger seats, how he grabbed it? – I don’t know. I didn’t see him take it, but I heard the clicking noises.

He had taken my phone. I verbally recounted the naughty behavior and instructed him to put my phone back. He obeyed, while explaining that he saw something beautiful had wanted to remember it.

I dropped him off at school and later began to sort through 50 one-second videos he had taken, apparently he thought he was taking pictures. Then I stumbled across one photo that he had managed to take with the still camera.

It was taken with instagram and he even chose his own filter for the image. I was seeing through his eyes, his perspective. This is what he thought was magnificent. I took note that the electricity lines complement the composition! If you look closely you can see the really dirty window in my van.

I was so inspired by his perspective that the next day I handed him the phone and asked him to take photos of unique and beautiful views along the way to school. I described inspirational scenes as: those views that seem to pop out at you and stir your thoughts. He nodded an excited ,”ok”! I have combined the best of from his journey of the car ride to school. You are viewing these images through the eyes of an imaginative five year old.

Do you have children? Try this sometime, you might like what you find, and there is no doubt that there will be perspective you had not seen before, or you were too busy driving to notice.

 

Noisily, it slid shut, raising my awareness that the automatic van door was slowly approaching death. I sped out of the Montessori school parking lot, hit the red light, and mentally replayed the morning.

Why did the morning seem like such a battle with the kids?

Why was I feeling a brick of heaviness in my chest?

Why did I play on facebook last night instead of doing laundry? The house is a mess and it’s Monday.

I have pending work that trumps the housework!  What should I do when I get home?  Run, pray, clean house, work, write?  After all, I only have three hours.

I could feel the avalanche of self inflicted insults coming down – they would soon bury me. I recognized the pattern and knew I had to get a shovel to plow out of the approaching mental disaster.

I asked myself the questions; What do I need to do for myself ?  It was a no-brainer indeed: de-stress… slow down.

Going home and tackling a to-do list, overly focused on productivity was my plan, but I soon realized it was the…

While pondering what to do I heard something with my heart’s ears: “Go to the beach.” I argued with the idea, critiquing my self-indulgent motives, but spontaneously shifted into left lane and onto causeway, heading towards my favorite spot.

I grabbed the empty coffee mug and ran towards the sun that rained sparkles across the water – the sand felt warm and relaxing as the sound of crashing waves stilled my thoughts.

I started to drop beautiful found things in the empty coffee mug. Hurricane Irene made sure the beach was full of treasures.

I prayed, skipped, waded in the water and breathed deeply.

Heading back down the beach I felt like a new woman. The heaviness was gone,  I was livelier, healthier and most importantly I had perspective on the day!

The morning was such a healing agent for me that I convinced the whole family to go out after 5 p.m. to collect interesting items. We scoured the crevices of driftwood beach for treasures.

It was just what the doctor ordered.