Summer...Let the Adventures Begin!

Summertime and the living is easy. Oh how I love love love nights of sitting out of doors enjoying slow conversations, great friends and warm breezes. I adore afternoons strolling through summer towns and resting on patios with live music and local foods. I cherish every memory born on sandy beach and forest trail. This is my time of the year. There is a thing refreshing about the confines of weather and temperature falling away, as though god reaches down, lifts our house off the set and leaves us standing exposed to wide open space, sunshine and infinite possibility. (Have I mentioned that I love, adore and crave summer?)

This is also the season of bright ideas. If the sun is shining and a child can remove nearly all of their clothing they will create themselves a fabulous Mark Twain, Huck Finn style adventure.

As parents we indulge every single one that is not beyond realistic achievement, we are, after all not so far removed from our own days of cooked up adventures to forget the tingle of a challenge.
It is the memory that propels us to strap a canoe onto the roof of the van at a moments notice and drive a couple of adventure seekers to the water.

That's what we did this past long weekend for KJ and her friend. They wanted to paddle around, we had the time and live pretty close to the water so a last minute voyage request it pretty do-able. We indulged.

It used to be that a canoe trip meant Mike would be on the water with a couple of gigglers who dropped paddle by the 1/4 mile in favour of a free ride. The kids are getting older now and are growing ever more capable of unaccompanied adventures. In short they can paddle their own canoe but they still need us to get them to the water. Lucky for them Mike and I have loaded the boat enough times that we have shortened the half day affair of strapping the canoe to the van down to a pretty fluid 10 minute system of heave, hoist and tie down. It makes saying yes a little easier.

We got them to the water, we lifted the canoe off the van, we supplied them with all the safety equipment and we wished them a safe voyage.

...and they stood there looking at us.

Warm summer days are also a time of great learning.

On this day the girls learned that people will help you get to to water but if you are going to live out your adventure...

You have to carry your own boat

Gratitude today for awesome kids who are not affraid of a little adventure seeking.


Gratitude, Hope & Smiles are meant to be shared...enjoy your Sunday
Michelle

What Grandpa Left Behind

I found myself misty eyed in my mother's garden over the weekend. I had been sent to check in on the nest of duck eggs that were laid in a nest near the pond. I went traipsing, which in actual fact was a thirty pace jaunt from my deck chair, through the trellis and around the lawn ornamentation. My mother lives in suburbia, her back forty and forty feet of frontage are the same thing.

Despite the smallness of my journey I required instruction and direction, expertly shouted by my expedition fans on the deck. "Straight ahead...behind the pond...in the zebra grass"

"I don't see the nest." I sent back over my shoulder.

"Right there under Grandpa's bench" at this point I became very confused there are two benches around my mother's pond; one my Grandmother used to sit on when she was alive and one the neighbours bought in her memory after she died....I was near neither of them.

Then I looked a little closer at where I was standing. There in front of me hidden by knee high ornamental grass was a third bench. I froze and my eyes welled up with tears.

My Grandfather's bench.

Three simple planks of wood nailed together. I feel apart a little. When I was a little girl my grandfather was my hero. He was tall and strong, he spoke seldom but when he did you listened up because it was always something worth hearing. I soaked in wisdom like a sponge in his company, I could not listen enough to the things had or did not have to say. On Sundays we would walk up through the back of his property to a spot perched high above a gravel pit that lay quieted away behind his house. There under a large shady maple you could find two things; quiet and my Grandfather's bench. (As an adult I would also suspect that a 26er of rye was probably nestled in the crook of the roots somewhere) This was his 'Thinking Place.' 

Grandpa's Bench
(moved out of the grass - just for a minute)

Grandpa would spend hours there smoking his pipe and contemplating existence. I realize more now as an adult just how privileged we as grandchildren were to have been invited along in our turns to enjoy the reverence of such a place. No conversation under that maple, on that bench or the ground perch in the dirt at it's base was meaningless. I was forever amazed how my Grandpa knew what the conversation needed to be, he could sense my troubles before I could name them myself. Without fail his words would waft in like a breeze and carry the troubles away in departure. This is the place where I learned the value of thinking. Not the value of being smart but the act of being in thought. How many of our troubles could we quell just through quiet, focused thought and reflection?

Grandpa passed away at the end of my teenage years, several before I became a wife and a mother. What I wouldn't have traded many times over the years for just a few minutes with Grandpa in his  thinking spot, for just a shred of his wisdom to help me through the dark days.

I laid eyes on Grandpa's bench and cried for days well past, days missed and the gift that was my Grandfather's thinking place.

I also scratched my head in disbelief that my mother moved the bench from under the tree above the gravel pit to her own backyard more than 24 years ago and I had no clue it existed there! Just as well, I'm sure she would have gotten tired of me hanging out around her pond at all hours of the day and night! .

Gratitude today for memories and the pieces of our past we carry with us, some in our hearts and some in our flower beds.


Gratitude, Hope and Smiles are meant to be shared,
Michelle

Getting Uncomfortable

What is the secret you keep? Mine is my passion for writing. It might not seem like I am doing a very good job keeping that secret but until recently it was something very very few people knew about me. When I was a kid or rather a teenager I would hide and write and then hide what I wrote. As a young adult I would be embarrassed when a boss, co-worker or committee member would compliment my letters or reports. Once I was asked to write a letter of recommendation for a school principal. I felt like crawling completely under her desk when she commented that I had exceptional talent for writing. How awkward that someone should compliment me on something as mundane as stringing words on paper. More importantly who was I to be exceptionally talented at anything? Ordinary people like me are ordinary not exceptionally talented. I wished she would stop trying to being nice.

I still wrote but I never never shared my words with anybody. The fear of being laughed at or of other people thinking my thoughts were foolish kept me hiding. Until I found an experience worth sharing that was greater than my fear of judgement and humiliation. The affect of gratitude was the catalyst to move me from that place of fear. My concern about what other people might think suddenly did not mean as much as sharing the amazing impact of gratitude on a family, on individuals, connections and relationships. Inspiring others to seek happiness, positivity and hope has become stronger than my fear of humiliating myself. So I write and I still worry about what people are going to think but I push the 'publish' button anyway. (and I still feel like throwing up every time)

So, that is my secret. Writing publicly in the Space Between Raindrops has given me courage to reveal myself and my passion for words. I am becoming braver about sharing and seeking opportunities to share, write for others and submit work for consideration. I am growing into a comfort with my passion. In the progress, sharing hope, gratitude and positivity with people has become a mission. I want to touch more families, share with more people the amazing impact that gratitude can have on the well being of a family and the individual lives within.

Somebody said...If you want to reach more people you need to do more than write you need to talk, and I can see you in front of people talking about this. (Michael has a great deal larger vision of myself than I ever could) The idea is intriguing. I can if I close my eyes tight and block out the paralyzing fear, see talking with people about finding the Space Between Raindrops. Curiosity begs investigation so I attempted a little experiment this week. I recorded a video. I called it the first in a series hopeful that I can put others together to encourage through another medium, the message.

The family has watched. It's longish and foolish and far from polished. KJ laughed and said "Mom, when you get to video number twenty you are going to go back and look at this one you are going to pee yourself laughing." then she clicked share. WAIT! I wasn't ready for that!!! "Too late." she said "Don't say you have to step out of your comfort zone and not do it."

So I guess I do it...I step out with a shove from my kid and I share that experiment here too. I would love your honest feedback...good, bad or indifferent.

Enjoy...I'm going to throw-up now.




Enjoy your long weekend!

Gratitude, Hope and Smiles are meant to be shared,

Michelle

Please Say a Prayer

This happened in our community Thursday afternoon, the news is devastating, the story difficult to read but please do... and pray.

Jeff Outhit, Record staff

Fri May 18 2012

14Recommend

Girl fights for life after truck hits school bus

Crash An unidentified man rests on the shoulder of Erb's Road after a garbage truck collided with a stopped school bus and then a child getting off the bus Thursday afternoon.

Record staff

ST. AGATHA — Horrified onlookers said a schoolgirl was hurled 25 metres and left curled in a ball on the pavement, her shoes torn off, when she was hit by a recycling truck that went into a ditch.
Lydia Herrle, 13, had just stepped off her school bus Thursday at her home on Erb’s Road. The bus was stopped on a clear, straight stretch of road. Its stop sign was extended and its flashers activated to stop traffic in both directions.
The collision left the girl fighting for her life, airlifted to Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto. “She has a skull facture with internal bleeding,” said her grandmother, Elsie Herrle.
Family, friends and neighbours prayed for her safety. They complained about high speeds and reckless drivers on the rural road.
Waterloo Regional Police say the truck came upon the bus from behind, clipped its right rear, passed the bus on the inside as the girl stepped out, and crashed into the ditch. Both vehicles were eastbound.
“It is still under investigation,” Sgt. Frank Heinrich said at the scene. “The cause of this collision is not yet known.”
Police closed the road for hours.
Lydia was hit in front of the popular Herrle’s country market run by her well-known family, 1.5 kilometres west of the Waterloo regional landfill. It happened at 3:30 p.m.
A handful of students were on the bus, which came from Baden Public School. Nobody else was injured.
Kristine Mosburger heard a bang from her home across the street. She rushed out to call 911 and saw the truck in the ditch before she saw the girl on the road.
“I looked down and I noticed that it was Lydia,” she said, tears flowing, voice breaking. “She’s the little girl across the street.”
“I just did a prayer right there. She was lying on her side. All I can remember is seeing that she’s not even wearing her shoes any more, she was thrown so far.”
Christine Leis heard the crash and turned to see the truck smash into the ditch. She was working outside the closed market, her back to traffic, when the school bus stopped to drop Lydia off. She rushed over to find her curled up on the pavement, breathing but unresponsive.
Elsie Herrle came home from shopping to discover the crash near her house. She was told her granddaughter had been hit. “All I can hope is that everything’s OK,” she said at the scene, her voice breaking.
“This is something that shouldn’t happen. They’ve got all these rules in place so that school buses are protected.”
Jo-Anne Soye, principal of Baden Public School, struggled with her emotions, waiting with a handful of students who were interviewed by police. “They’re shaken, emotionally and physically,” she said. “It’s a very, very frightening experience.
“It’s hard to understand how this could happen.”
Mosburger and others say people drive too fast on Erb’s Road and take unnecessary passing risks. Last year she called police about a car that blew past a stopped school bus in front of her home. More recently she saw another driver do the same thing.
“School buses have to be hot pink now because nobody sees orange any more,” she said, her anger rising. “They just don’t care.”
“It’s just not safe, this road. People drive too fast and are out of control. They’re just so worried about getting from point A to point B.”
Mosburger has two young sons who catch their school bus on the road. “I don’t how I’m ever going to let my kids get on and off the bus again.”
Erb’s Road is about to be repaved where the collision happened. Neighbours say the road won’t get the paved shoulders they want for improved safety.
The neighbouring Nedeljkovich family knows traffic risks all too well. Calvin Nedeljkovich was killed nearby in 2006 while cycling on Erb’s Road. He was 17.
“It’s just not safe,” said Calvin’s sister, Danielle Nedeljkovich. She said impatient drivers tailgate other cars and drive too fast. Her family rushed over to offer help and support to the Herrle family, who were so kind when Calvin was killed.
The recycling truck is operated by Plein Disposal of Elmira. The company would not comment at the scene.
The school bus is operated by Sharp Bus Lines. The driver would not comment at the scene. “He’s pretty shaken up,” said Sherry Roswell, a branch manager with the bus company.
jouthit@therecord.com

I can not even begin to comprehend the pain and fear for the Herrle family. I read the story and it left me in tears, how do you stay strong through such a tragedy? Then I read a twitter message sent though the night by Trevor Herrle ... #community ♥ :) sorry I can't respond to all 400+ mentions, we feel your support and prayers, please remember the truck and bus driver too

You find remarkable strength and you pray. Please say one today for these families.

Michelle

Eating Frogs

I've been talking about frogs quiet a bit, eating them mostly. It is a reference to Mark Twain's quote...

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
―    Mark Twain

I have a similar line that I use with my kids... "Eat your brussel sprouts first!"

Basically, I just want to find a way to encourage us to get all the gross things we would like to put off, out of the way. Any time I am faced with a list of chores, duties or obligations, I look at it decided what is the very last thing I want to do...then I do that first.

My kids despise me for it, for encouraging them to get the homework done before the road hockey game or eat their dinner before dessert. (ok most times I serve the frogs)

This is my biggest frog right now...

...and I am eating it.

Twain was right (and kids your mom is right too) once you have eaten that frog, or gotten the brussel sprouts out of the way, the rest is gravy and peach cobbler!

Gratitude that some days I only have one or two frogs to contend with!

What is your frog today?



Hope, Gratitude and Smiles are meant to be shared, go make someones day.

Michelle