"There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live."
- Dalai Lama
I've missed you so much!
This summer I had to put the blog aside for a bit to focus on these special people who are ALL teenagers now! With the passage of time, I found myself longing for more time spent with my family as these four will be out of high school in the blink of an eye. I'm not ready for this period of togetherness time to elapse. Needless to say, this is what "mattered most" this summer.
- 10-hour road trips with four teenagers, the Hubs and one panting dog...with bad breath
- The above party of six plus me, stuffed into a hotel room along the road after a much-too-late departure for said road trip due to a car that was in the auto shop being repaired for a fender bender thanks to an irresponsible twenty-something who ran a red light, colliding into our vehicle, resulting in a too-small rental car for three weeks of the summer
- learning how to play tennis alongside the teenagers and the sheer bliss experienced while retrieving one missed ball after another because we were laughing at our foibles and playing on, as true Oregonians, despite the rain showers on a hot day in Central Oregon
- celebrating my parent's 50th wedding anniversary at Sunriver Resort with all the grandkids and the realization that we were gathered because two people fell in love all those years ago and thinking about all the work invested in making a marriage last and what a great payoff comes from all that work and all that love
- living like a tree, learning how to cling tightly to the earth, remaining rooted yet willing to lean and bend; moving with the wind and storms yet rebounding, firmly standing, at peace with the movement swirling around
- floating in a lake and a reservoir with the warm sun and cool waters nourishing and inspiring me to "listen closely" and tune in (while tuning out the crying babies and barking dogs, of course)
- being brave, embracing change and planning my life to be an experience of growth - all while letting go of what I cannot change
- joining the Hubs' family of 45+ for a family reunion and fostering family connections, traditions and memories our kids will never forget
- turning off the cell phone, unplugging from technology and being present (and how very difficult and nearly impossible that was for me to pull off this summer with work, even while on vacation)
- sitting on the back deck on a warmer summer evening with patio lights illuminating freshly harvested fields, contemplating how wonderful this life is and how much I still need to give back to this world
- participating in my first "color fight" (throwing powdered color at an opposing team) with the extended family and remembering how much fun it is to run around being silly and playing
- seeing the light in others and treating them as if that is all I can see
- listening to my almost 14-year old daughter's six-year old voice in a video as she read a story with her sweet little lisp as her tongue readjusted to a mouth of missing teeth and hearing the clock of time tick as she morphs into a young woman before my eyes
- making room for spontaneous badmitton games or time making homemade ice cream while desperately trying not to "waste" that precious time as my kids sit next to or across from me on a crowded couch that in a few short years will be empty
- playing golf with our budding golfer Connor with him not only driving the car to the golf course, but then advising me as to which club to use, the distance from the flag, how to adjust my stance and then experiencing one of the best golf scores I've played in many years as a result of his "guidance"
- hearing the 15-year old summarize the summer telling me, "I'm not sure why, but this summer was the best one in a long time." (15-year old teenagers can't quantify moments as being the "best ever", by the way.)
All in all, feeling grateful for this life with the group of humans that surround me and allow me to live alongside them.
