One day last week or so, we got a bright and sunny day in the middle of what has been a long season of persistent gray and dreary.  So, when I picked Sean up from school I suggested that instead of going home, we should stop off at the local nature trail and go exploring.  And I could take pictures.

Yes, I had an ulterior motive.  Or, as I like to think of it, I had a plan with something for everyone.  I got to play with my camera and Sean got to pretend to be Bear Grylls.  And unleash some of that explosion-sound-making-Ninja-karate-chopping-little-boy energy into the pseudo wilderness.  Okay, that part was really for me too if you’re keeping score.

When we had gotten to the point furthest away from the car, he pointed to a log that had fallen across a shallow stream and asked if he could try to cross it.  I estimated that the worst thing that could happen is that he would fall in and get wet.  I told him he could give it a try if he wanted but that he should consider that if he fell in and got wet he would have to walk back to the car wearing wet clothes and shoes and that would not be very comfortable.

It was a risk he was willing to take, and frankly, I thought it was a good choice. A risk where the worst outcome is a little dirt or discomfort is a risk worth taking.

Aaaaand he fell in.

But he did not fuss or complain other than to say he was disappointed that we had to cut our adventure short. I helped him up the side of the muddy creek embankment and we headed back to the car to change clothes.

Sidebar:  If you are a new mom, here’s a little tip for you:  Always always keep a bag of clothes in your car with at least one change of clothes for your kiddo – pants, shirt, undies, socks and shoes, a light jacket or sweatshirt, wet wipes and a few plastic bags for the dirty clothes.  The bag of extra clothes I keep in my car has been a lifesaver many times over.  I usually keep clothes in the bag that we don’t mind parting with because on more than one occasion, we’ve had to outfit other children.  Just remember to change out the clothes seasonally.

As we were approaching the parking lot, Sean turned to me and challenged me to race him to the car and he took off running.  Not one to decline a challenge, I hugged my camera to my chest and trotted after him.

I watched him running ahead of me, coppery brown hair sparkling in the afternoon sunlight, his colt-like legs striding long and graceful.  It made me feel happy.  And I thought that it just doesn’t get any better than this.  “C’mon Mom!” he turned to yell at me as he continued to sprint towards the car.

In the weird slow motion time warp that is my mind I wanted to warn him to watch where he was going, to not run while looking back at me, because I could see that he was heading towards a row of parking stumps and I imagined him stumbling over them and crashing his perfect and precious form into the cruel pavement.

The impending scene played out so slowly in my head but so quickly before my eyes that I couldn’t make my lips form words of warning.  But at the last second, he turned and loped easily over the parking stumps.

I, on the other hand — who apparently can’t trot and have a complex thought at the same time — I began to stumble over air. My upper body got ahead of me and I began list forward as I was trotting along.  I’m a little top heavy to begin with but with the added weight of my Nikon around my neck aiding and abetting the laws of gravity, I went down hard on the pavement — knees, then hands and camera.

Sometimes when you fall, you know its coming and you think to yourself, “Uh oh, I am going to fall down.” This wasn’t like that. The space of time between realizing I was going to fall and realizing I was on the ground was deleted from the history of the universe.  It never happened. I was here and then there and the space between here and there was neither here nor there — it wasn’t ever there.

I was so focused on saving him from stumbling, that I crashed and burned myself before I knew it. Oh, if ever there was a Christian analogy.

I heard my camera hit the ground with an awful crisp metal crack.  The lens filter went flying and as I was splayed out face down out on the pavement trying to figure out what the heck happened, I heard it somewhere off to the side circling and spinning like a penny on its edge before it came to rest.  That was not a cheerful sound.

My hands were encrusted with parking lot pebbles and grit and felt like they were on fire. My jeans had clean scissor-like slits ripped in both knees which exposed a river of bright red blood. I couldn’t think clearly enough to decide whether to dig gravel out of my hands first or to see about the fate of my camera.

I felt very old and stiff.  And humiliated.   And I wanted to cry. Not because I was hurt, because I would heal (although it takes a lot longer than it used to) but what if I had busted my camera?  That thought was too agonizing to process.

Miraculously, due to the amazingly sturdy magnesium alloy construction that is Nikon, my camera was fine. No busted glass, no worse for the wear. And that is why I chose Nikon – I knew this would happen sooner or later. I have a long history with dumbassery and the scars to prove it. If there is a point to this story, and I’m not sure there is, it is this: Buy Nikon.

See what a nice crisp picture a Nikon can capture as it’s bashing into concrete?

As for me, I am not made of magnesium alloy, and I didn’t get off as easily as my camera.  Sean rushed back to me and helped me up, pausing only to marvel over the coolness that was my bloody knee.  He clapped his hands and then gleefully rubbed them together like a mad scientist and suggested that we should head home where he could “doctor me up”.

And so he did.  When we got home, I was instructed to wait in the bathroom until he could find his doctor kit. After scrounging around in his toy box, he returned to attend to the wounded.

I sat on the edge of the tub while he donned surgical gloves and dabbed at my knee with a wet paper towel.  He listened to my heart with his stethoscope and gave me a shot in the thigh, just in case.  He very gently put on a dollop of “Neopesporverin” and then two or seven band-aids.  And then offered to share a Tootsie Pop with me.

And I have to tell you — that memory alone is probably worth the price of a scraped knee.

The doctor is in.

My hard disk died a week or so ago.  I knew it was coming. It had been complaining loudly and moaning and groaning for quite some time and then one morning, it gave one last long gasp.  The skies went dark and the blue screen was torn in two.

And I didn’t even care. In fact, it was liberating. The death of my PC was a sweet release in a way.

I was cut off from my on-line world except for my iTouch — which is a good device for lurking to some degree, but not much for participating. That teeny tiny keypad is not very useful for 50-year-old eyes.

The fact of the matter is that for some time now, I’ve been feeling like Forrest Gump in that scene where he is jogging down the highway out in the desert with all those people following him and he just stops. He’s been running hard for five years and one day, he just stops.  He doesn’t really know why.  It just seems right.  He turns and tells all the people that he’s tired now and he’s going home.

That’s sort of how I’ve been feeling about blogging lately, just sort of called away, feeling like it’s time to slow down, be quiet, do something else, invest elsewhere.  I don’t plan to stop completely, I don’t think so anyway, but I’m going to take away some of the time and energy I give to this blog and invest it in my photography and elsewhere.  Is that called balance? I don’t know.

There’s probably a bit more to it than that, which I don’t fully understand, but I feel like I’ve entered a new season of life and I don’t know to what degree blogging fits in. We’ll just have to see.

So there’s that…

This morning Sean and AD were at the breakfast bar and for some reason we were talking about fancy restaurants and how they are different from the kind we frequent.

I told him fancy restaurants usually have table cloths, flowers and a waiter who brings you a menu.

Sean added, “And they usually have hang down lights at the table too.”

I said yes, that was often the case. I thought that was an interesting observation and tried to think of any fancy restaurants we might have taken him to where they had hang down lights (which in the design world we call pendant lighting) but I drew a blank.

“Just like at Panda Express!” he said.

I like the size of his world right now, where Panda Express with its hang down lights is a fancy restaurant.

As I was driving home from dropping Sean off at school the other day, I noticed the long line of cars wrapped around Starbucks and the crowded parking lot and I got to thinking how no one drops by for coffee anymore.  It seems that everyone goes to Starbucks instead.

Friends dropping in for coffee is all but a remnant of another era and I think that is kind of a shame that we aren’t available for spontaneous interaction anymore, that we don’t open our homes for that sort thing, that we are just too busy or that we don’t think our homes perfect enough or clean enough or whatever enough.

As I have mentioned here before, my parents live in the same house they bought in 1956.  In that time, they have served approximately 23,436 cups of coffee to neighbors, wayfarers, odd-ball relatives and the occasional long-lost friend who just dropped in.  My parent’s coffee pot has been on for 54 years.

My parent’s kitchen defies everything Southern Living tells us we need to create a warm and welcoming space for visitors.  Their home is not big and bright and you certainly will not find anything new or matching or from Pottery Barn there.  Their kitchen would make Martha Stewart cry.

The avocado green paneling is circa 1972. The pattern on the linoleum floor is all but worn off and slick from the constant ironing of the rolling chairs. (Aside:  I’ve always thought that chairs with rollers were an interesting choice for a kitchen so small you can reach anything without having to get out of your chair.  And in a 100-year-old house that has settled substantially, rolling chairs on slick linoleum means you could potentially roll out the back door if you are not paying attention.)

The refrigerator is covered in pictures of grandchildren and great grandchildren and postcards and magnets with wise sayings.  The table is always so cluttered that you have to scooch books and puzzles and prescription bottles aside just so you might carve out four square inches of real estate to set your cup down.  The trick is scooching it all en masse, like a tectonic plate, to just the correct degree, so that whatever is on the other end of the table doesn’t fall off like California into the Pacific.

The 45-year-old Melmac coffee cups don’t match, nor do any of the not-silverware.

My mother does not serve fancy or flavored coffee — it’s Folgers or whatever is on sale and if you want cream, it’s store brand Coffeemate.

Their kitchen is teeny tiny and cramped and cluttered and woefully out of date.  It’s not fancy or comfortable and would not pass the white glove test.

Nonetheless, people want to go there and hang out for a time and chat,  and they have for more than half a century.  Something there draws ‘em in and it ain’t the kitchen or the coffee.

Must be the conversation and the company.

I turned 50 a while back. Or maybe I’m going to be 50 soon. I forget which. I like to be coy. Nonetheless, I jotted down a random list of 50 things I’ve learned or observed in 50 years. These things may not be universally true, but they are true for me.

* * * * *

1. If you want to be really really good at something, you will probably have to forsake something else in your life. The pursuit of excellence in any given field is not conducive to moderation or balance.  Either balance is overrated or excellence is — I’m not sure which, but you can’t really have both.

2. Being average is not a bad thing – there’s a lot of good company in the middle of the pack.

3. In most matters, done is better than perfect. But done right is better than done fast, except for housework.  Then good enough is good enough.

4. Never say “It can’t get worse.” It can get worse. It can definitely get worse.

5. It’s better to be content than rich. Riches are easier to come by than contentment.

6. You can disagree with someone and still like them.

7. You can dislike someone and still be kind to them.

8. Education is as much about enlightenment as employment. Education is never a waste.

9. You’ll never know how much your parents love you until you have your own child.

10. You’ll never know how much you hurt your parents until you have your own child.

11. No one will remember what shoes or earrings you wore to the party.

12. Getting drunk is extremely uncool.  Always has been.

13. Honor your father and mother so that it might go well with you.

14. There are three things you can do to make your life very very difficult – making babies too young and without commitment, using drugs, and getting involved in credit card debt. I only know of one first hand; the other two I managed to avoid by the grace of God.

15. Teachers and nurses are two of the few vocations where you can really make a difference in the life of another human being. The rest of us are just pushing paper.

16. Maintaining flexibility is the key to aging well. Stretch your mind and body a little each day.

17. Life is a series of peaks and valleys. Like the weather, it’s always about to change.

18. Nothing in the mall will make you happy. For very long.

19. We can’t all be leaders.

20. If you can’t be a good leader, be a good follower.

21. Make sure the person you are following is taking you where you want to go.

22. Nothing good comes of a secret.

23. On the other hand, every thought does not need to be expressed.

24. Anger poisons the soul. A grudge prisons the soul. Forgiveness purifies the soul. Forgive with haste.

25. When you win an argument, you really lose.

26. Concede whenever you can.

27. Career is a fancy name for a job.

28. No matter how bad you think you look right now, 10 years from now you will wish you looked as good.

29. The only thing that makes me smarter than when I was 20 is that now I have an awareness of how little I really know.

30. Whatever stylish thing you are wearing right now will look ridiculous in 10 years.

31. Encourage more, criticize less.

32. Use the guest towels.

33. Television is anesthesia. Watch as little as possible.

34. Life is short. But it could also be long – start saving when you are young.

35. Quality Time is a big fat modern lie when it comes to your kid. Go for Quantity Time.

36. Life is too short to spend time trying to get curly hair be straight or straight hair to be curly. Find a hairstyle that suits your hair.

37. The only way to lose weight is to eat less and move more.

38. Fashion magazines are designed to make you feel badly about yourself. Save your money.

39. Speak less, listen more.

40. Every day, no matter how cruddy, is a great day to be alive.

41. Smoking is ugly, smelly, stupid and looks silly. Don’t smoke.

42. Anyone who says they have no regrets is lying. We’ve all done and said regrettable things.

43. If you haven’t done anything regrettable, you haven’t lived. Or at least not long enough.

44. The perfect purse is worth every penny.

45. Grocery store make up is just as good as department store make up, but if paying 3x as much makes you feel better, that probably makes it worth it.

46. Say please and thank you to everyone, but especially to those who do the cruddy stuff no one else wants to do. Your kids are watching.

47. Be quick to tell your kid you are sorry when (not if) you mess up. That in and of itself is a teaching moment.

48. Don’t underestimate the power of silence to make a point.

49. Let your children (and those you love) know every day that you delight in them, that they are a source of joy in your life; that you are glad they were born.

50. The person who most needs your kindness is likely the last person to whom you want to be kind.

Sunday night, the church we attend held its annual Christmas get-together where the children sing Christmas songs and have their picture taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus.  So we donned our gay apparel and off we went.

Sean had been looking forward to going because he knew that Santa would be there and he wanted to make sure Santa knows that he wants a bow and arrow for Christmas.  He doesn’t really believe in Santa, but Sean is the kind of guy who likes to cover his bases.

At the same time, he was not looking forward to going because he knew that he, along with his Sunday school class, was expected to get up and sing in front of everybody and he would rather eat broccoli with spinach sauce than do that.

When they called Sean’s class up to the front to perform, he did not want to go.  Like a mule, he sat back on his heels and refused to go.

Had it been just me, I would have said fine, no biggie and let it go at that. It didn’t seem very important to me and I know I hate being forced into doing something that makes me uncomfortable.  And if there is one thing that makes me uncomfortable it’s the thought of being forced to sing in front of a roomful of people.  And just below that is the thought that I should have to wrestle my child to the ground and then drag him by his ankles up front to sing for a room full of people.   Then there would be two terrified, not to mention angry, people up front which would put a damper on the whole tidings of comfort and joy theme. So then, my vote was to not make it an issue.

But Antique Daddy saw it differently.  He felt it was important that Sean push through the fear and get up and sing with his group.  So he coaxed and cajoled and encouraged.  Sean looked to me for a rescue, but also high on the list of things that make me squirm is the thought of having a spousal argument in front of the entire church body, so I shrugged my shoulders to indicate to Sean that I was staying out of it and that this was between him and his daddy.

Finally AD grabbed him by the hand and drug him up front offered to go with him.  So off they went to the front hand and hand.  Sean made his way to the stage while AD stood off to one side.

As he stood among his peers, lip-syncing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, I thought about how parenting is this constant challenge of trying to decide when to push and when to back off.  And how often no matter which way you go it feels like you’re getting it wrong.

When he got back to his seat, I pulled him into my lap and told him I thought he did a great job and that I was really proud of how brave he was.

“I wasn’t brave!” he said in a huff, “I was really really scared!”  And then he nestled into me like a bird in a nest.

“I know,” I whispered in his ear, “Being brave means being really really scared and doing it anyway.”