It’s been a fun day. I had breakfast with my kids, then we drove over and spent a few minutes at a local park. A few hours later I drove Jared to work and then Michal and I spent the afternoon talking. It was nice. We talked for hours. I am grateful for the relationship that I have with each of my children. I’ve heard it said that parents are not to be their children’s friend–the sentiment I believe is about making sure that one is an authority figure and not a peer to their kids. I get that. It makes total sense. There does come a point, however, when our kids are no longer chronologically children and we then engage in a deeper level of conversation, enter into a different phase of relationship. While this still doesn’t make us peers, and I am old school enough to expect that my children will show appropriate respect to their elders, it’s still really cool when you get to a place where you can have good intellectually stimulating and/or emotionally bonding heart-to-heart conversations.
It was great spending so much time talking with Michal. I feel blessed to have a close relationship with my daughter as I did with my mother. We spoke about our life purposes: she is just beginning to shape what she wants to do with her life post-baccalaureate and I am sorting mine out post menopausal. Ah well, better late than never. We talked about childhood dreams and the things we loved to do when we were little. For her her memories are a little bit closer than mine, but my memory of the things I loved to do and how those connect to my current life are a clear as ever. I look forward to continuing to spend time thinking those major life themes in the days and weeks to come.
For tonight, I will offer simple gratitudes. It was a beautiful day–unseasonably so. We reached a record high 65 degrees. As much as I am enjoying the sunny weather, I’ll look forward to expressing gratitude for rainy days. We’re at about 30% of normal rainfall here in the Bay area, and similarly below record snowfall in the mountains from which we get much of our drinking water. Water is one of those natural resources which so many of us take for granted. We turn on the tap and have every expectation that water will come out of it. I know I do. Every day, several times a day. And when I step into the shower, I expect the water to be warm. I am grateful for the water that flows from the mountains through the various systems that filter and purify it and convey it to my house. A number of years ago when I was still living in Michigan, I became much more conscious about wanting to conserve, recycle, and reuse water. While I wasn’t particularly hard core about it, I developed some good habits that I need to continue to employ and increase as northern California continues in this pattern of dry weather.
Today I smiled a lot and laughed a bit. That’s eight days in a row now! Doing well with the new year’s intention to smile more, but failing miserably about getting more and better sleep. Posting one’s blog at almost midnight tonight is not helping! Ah well, I’ll keep at it. May we all be healthy and strong. May we live with ease and wellbeing. Let it be so!
