June 12, 2013

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting – Ghost Son

Attempted to snap this photo of my teen son during a Mom don’t take my picture phase. This phase lasted longer than most childhood phases, but in retrospect they were all quite fleeting.

For many years, whenever I aimed a camera at my daughter, her hand whipped up in front of the lens. My son recently pointed out that, had I saved all those shots, we would have a complete chronicle of the palm of her hand as it matured from elementary school to college.

Share dinner with me - okay. But don't take my picture!

Share dinner with me – okay. But don’t take my picture!

 

Typical photo of my daughter.

Typical photo of my daughter.

 

(Posted as part of the Weekly Photo Challenge.)

June 11, 2013

The Daily Prompt: Take Care – Caught Me!

This Daily Prompt is disturbingly well timed. It catches me ducking the same questions in real life: Do I allow someone to take care of me?… What does it take for me to ask for help?

Next week I will have surgery to replace a hip. If I listen to the surgeon, within a couple weeks I will be back to activity, cautiously, with a cane. I like that worldview. But the hospital says to expect weeks of incapacity. I like that not at all. It is a big dose of old and helpless.

Either way, I’ll need help. But a couple weeks means I only tap those who have offered. Many weeks means asking those who haven’t offered help.  That would be a first for me. I’m sure it would lead to great personal growth, yada yada. I am spending equal amounts of time not thinking about it, believing it will all work out fine whatever it turns out to be, and opting to try something easier than asking for help, such as training the cats to wait on me.

Reflecting further on this prompt, I discover that the ability to ask for help requires love, trust, and confidence, in myself and the other person.

June 10, 2013

As A Spectator Sport, A Bit of a Challenge

(Note: this post has pages, in response to this Weekly Writing Challenge.)

I’ve never been into sports. I’m no good playing them – except Jacks, I play a mean game of Jacks – and was never interested in watching sports until my kids started playing them. Through my kids, I’ve become a soccer fan and I enjoy track meets. Last year, my daughter joined a college crew team. I know zip about crew, as you will quickly detect from this post. For those who know even less: crew teams race in rowboats. There. Now I’ve shared everything I know.

I learned at my daughter’s first crew meet that binoculars are a good idea.

(cont.)

Pages: 1 2 3 4
June 9, 2013

The Daily Prompt: The Normal – Pack Response

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Do wolves get bored? Read on to find out.

I’m not much interested in normal. To me, normal is

  • average
  • typical
  • commonplace
  • predictable
  • unimaginative.

However, normal is also

  • fitting in.

On dark days, I feel like everybody else knows the rules but nobody thought to let me know. Even then, though, I don’t want to go normal, I just want to be better informed.

This reminds me of one of my favorite pieces of writing – ever! – composed by my sister in 2nd grade:

One day the wolf was strolling along with the pack
I am not satisfied he said will I have to run around with this pack all my life
So he left he came to a forest he got to a desert
He lay down in the middle he was dying of thirst
Oh he thought if only I had stayed

(This post topic comes from The Daily Prompt.)