Just Enjoying It

Right now I am sitting at the kitchen table at my dad and step-mom's house drinking a cup of coffee...watching a brown leaf drowning, Ophelia-style, in a puddle of cold water on the deck just outside the glass doors. What will I do next? I dunno. There's been talk of shopping today. Exchanging some clothes that don't fit right, new shoes that are too big. But it's vacation so plans are as flexible as bread dough and we'll just sit here until we rise. Who knows when that will be: maybe 15 minutes, maybe three hours.

Nothing moves outside except this brown leaf. All is still. I don't even see any birds. The poor dog looks bored, hoping something outside will move. I feel his pain. Luckily (or unluckily) for him, my daughter has decided to follow him all over the house. He's a good boy. Good dog. Very patient. Yesternight she played with his ears for twenty minutes and he just looked at her like, "Really, do you reeeeealllly need to do that? Okay. Fine."

My daughter has also discovered "PRESENTS!" And it is so much fun to see her rip into them, SO EXCITED! It's a total mystery and it's so....COOL! Yes, at 2 and 1/2 my daughter says "cool". You'll ask her, "Cricket, what's inside that one?" And her little mind buzzing she'll just look at you with wide eyes and a little grin and say, "I dunno!" And then she'll unwrap it and say, "oh, cool!"

It's important to me that she learns to relish each gift, enjoying it, taking time. And she does. Therefore, learning to practice what I preach, I am taking time with today. Enjoying it. Relishing each "gift", each moment, each cookie. Even if it's just seeing how far that brown little leaf will drift. (And just how fat I can get in a week in Ohio.)

Hoping for some snow, white.
--Evelyn White