Mother's Day

Left the house about 11 am and walked down the hill. I have challenged myself to always find a new place to explore each weekend so I made a right turn at the bottom of the hill and found a nice little park full of families playing with their children. The families had tents outs to protect their skin from the sun. The children were roller-blading, playing catch and riding their bicycles. The families were cooking and eating food. 

I sat at the edge of all the activity for about an hour. I just really wanted to be near children today. Wanted to soak in their simple expressions of pure joy and hope. I let the sounds of their laughter wash over me. It felt cleansing to be surrounded by all the love of those families. I did not want to be alone today.  The sun was kissing my skin and felt so sweet and warm.  A couple of the little girls, giggling, were brave enough to come over after a while and say “hello”. They reminded me of my students. I wished I was bold enough to get myself invited to one of the cookouts but I was not.

I nodded and smiled at a group of senior citizen women, who walked by staring at me. They were on their way to take a delicious nap under the shade. Afterwards I walked to the nearby garden and plucked about three pea pods. The peas were sweet like candy.

As a gift to myself, today, on Mother’s Day, I paid $8 for a pint of cheesecake ice cream. 

It BETTER be as good as haagen dazs!