Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Wherefore art thou, Baby of mine?


Excuse me. I wonder if you could help me. I seem to have lost my baby. I'm sure she was right here only a moment ago. Tiny, fat, bald, really cute. Loves eating and sitting, hates being away from mama. I think I may have dozed off for a moment, but she can't have gone far. No? Strange.

Even more strange (talk about a coincidence!) is that there is a girl here who calls me mama and has the same name as my little squishy baby. But she is almost six years old. Clearly, she cannot be mine. Mine is ever so much smaller. Why, she can't even walk!

Yet she calls me mama. "Mom", actually.

This girl is quite breathtaking. She has wide eyes of the most intoxicating green through which I can see her beautiful heart. She loves, she loves so well. She cares, she protects, she advises. She is so wise. And she is so silly. She tells the best jokes, she does a mean naked baby dance, and she can instantly assume the identity of any animal you can imagine.

She is also astoundingly clever. In fact, she tells me that she entered the Elementary program at her school yesterday.  Her parents must be so proud. I wonder if they miss the days when she was a sweet little baby like mine. Or do they spend each day growing more in awe of her, more in love with her, unable to hide how smitten they are with each new skill, each discovery, each challenge that she navigates? I'm willing to bet that both are true. I know I find myself thinking about what my baby will be like at 5, 10, 15 (god help us), 20...and I have to stop myself to remember that those days will come, but these days, these early days, won't come again. If only I could stay awake long enough to witness them!

Now where is that chubby little monkey?







Thursday, January 1, 2015

The WOW factor

Happy New Year!

I would like to say that this year I will blog every day, that I will write letters and make phone calls to loved ones every week, and that I will not waste time on Facebook. I would love to purge our house of unhealthy food and spend an hour a day exercising and make sure that Ralph gets two long walks a day. These are fantastic ideas, but I know myself fairly well by now. Good ideas, great intentions, outstanding ability to procrastinate.

Recently I read about the importance of saying "Wow". About how our happiness depends in part on our ability to get up every morning and find things that spark our sense of wonder and amazement.

"Wow. I have another entire day in front of me!"
"Wow. I convinced this pretty great guy to marry me!"
"Wow. Matching socks!"

It's a bit like gratitude. But it's also more than that.

"Wow. Rainbows are AWESOME."
"Wow. Skype is exactly like those space age videophones we saw in movies in the 1980's."
"Wow. My dog just loves me all the time, every single day."

It's not the hardest thing in the world to do. Maybe if I fill my brain with WOW thoughts, I won't have time for things like brooding and pouting and self-flagellation. Instead of wondering how the world can be so unfair, I can focus on how on earth bees ever figured out how to keep us flush with flowering plants...not to mention sweet, sweet honey.

Let's give it a shot.

2015. The year of WOW!