This was my Facebook status, last night (yes, I’m one of those long-status people):
After lunch, we decided to go skating. But the car wouldn’t start. The battery was capital D dead. So, I decided to take the kids on the bus, while Mike replaced the battery. But the bus doesn’t stop near the Victoria Oval. So, we got off at the top of the hill, took the stairs, and walked through the golf course. But then I thought a cross-country ski trail was a path to the rink, and we got lost. In hip deep snow.
Awesome.
So, we walked back the way we came. Very slowly. Shelton cried. We talked about snowshoes and telemark skis and the value of adventure, which made it better…. sort of. Then we crossed the road to the River Valley Trail and found a Christmas Tree – a little decorated, live spruce right there among the regular trees. Which was awesome. So, we sang Christmas carols for the rest of our walk, and found the skating rink. Where there were no vending machines, or hot chocolate machines, or operational water fountains.
Which sucked.
So, we skated for awhile and pretended to be soaring eagles and wushu masters. Until Mike showed up with a happy car and hot chocolate and snacks. Woot! And then we went to get Chinese food. WOOOT!!! And now we have a new memory about how, on the very last day of 2012, the car was broken and I got us lost and Shelton skated for a whole hour without the skating frame…. Which is a long way of saying, “HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!” I hope next year’s adventures are snow-shoe optional… unless you like that kinda thing. =D
Yup.
2012 was a stressful year, for this family. I started grad school last January, and basically tilted our entire lives fifteen degrees to the left. No big deal. We’re used to being tilted. Frankly, we sort of like it… And then someone lit the rocket boosters, and we found ourselves hurtling through our days with emotion and experience intensifying all around us, until it was actually quite difficult to figure out when we were laughing and when we were crying. Often, we did both at the same time. We won almost all of our missions, and celebrated, but the ones we lost hurt us deeply.
Yesterday afternoon, my kids and I were stuck in the snow with trees so thick around us, I couldn’t see where we were. The map application on my smartphone was frozen, and my son – who was already tired when we left the house – was struggling hard and finally just fell back and cried. It was frustrating. Everything was so FRUSTRATING! This simple thing that was supposed to be fun had just exploded into insanity and it was ALL MY FAULT! I blinked tears and thought about how I probably wasn’t strong enough to carry both of them out of here. Which is hilarious, when you think about it. Because we were stuck in the snow in a golf course, of all places, with a busy road somewhere beyond those trees over here, and a bunch of cross-country-skiers somewhere inside those trees over there, several hundred kilometres away from real peril.
Laughing, I picked up my son, and I hugged my daughter, and we hung out in the snow for awhile, watching the trees and the birds and talking about snowshoes and skis, and yetis and zombies, and how cool it would be if we could just lift up our wings and fly.
When we were ready, getting unstuck was easy. When we were waiting to cross the street, Shelton was already re-telling our snow adventures with comic flourish. When we came across the little Christmas tree, Danica remarked that we wouldn’t have found it if we hadn’t gotten lost, or the bunny tracks, or the giant nest, either. So, that was cool. It was actually kinda fun. It was maybe our Best New Year’s Eve Day Ever, especially once Danica did her first spin on skates and Shelton lapped the rink without any help at all.
My only resolution for 2013 is to find more of those hidden gifts. Rub the condensation off the rocket porthole and really see the joy in my life, you know? I’m so lucky. I’m so blessed. But sometimes, I forget. Can one resolve to remember, more often?
Happy New Year, everyone. I hope you find your joy, too :-)
- D.
Missed reading your lovely posts. My year has been riddled with emotional trials that have completely demotivated my person more than once. Still, I am very blessed. It helps when we can see how truly blessed we are to keep on pushing forward. I love the New Years Eve story. You will tell and retell this story … it will probably make it throughout all your Christmas gatherings into the hearts of your Grand Children. How truly fun to think about. Something that started so wrong becomes such a treasured memory. Many blessings for your new year. :D
Oh, honey. I think it’s impossible to push forward when we forget how truly blessed we are – or at least, it’s impossible for me :P I hope your 2013 is as stress-free and as relaxing as possible, and bursting at the seams with joy. Hugs to you, sweet lady. Thanks for popping by :-)
Wishing the samw for both of us! :D Love catching up! :D
‘Resolve to remember’- it is our own personal private stock memoirs which we have lived that we hold close, cling onto through out the years that we draw upon when we need strength, comfort and assurance. Your children’s internal memoir is just beginning, yours has already defined and gave you direction,
Salute to you and to those who follow your words here and comment….. here’s to being lost in the wilds of a Canadian golf course, to skating a full lap around the rink, to a first twirl on skates, to the hero with hot chocolate and to the father who freed his son’s leg out from between the rails in the middle a train trestle minutes before a CN freight train came through a rock cut, Okay the last is my memory an I mention it because it is one I draw upon often, especially now that my father has dementia. ‘Resolve to remember’ does us all good, especially when we bank them for a rainy day.
Here’s to beautiful memories in 2013.
Cheers to you, Hudson, and to your father the superhero. You’ve stirred up an image of memories as cut stones; translucent, sharp-edged, shattered quarts in rose and brown and sand. Sometimes I don’t want to hold on to them. They cut my hands, you know? Forgetting that if I hold them carefully, angle them up to the light, they will colour me with quiet rainbows. Those beautiful memories :-) Happy 2013, Hudson!
I love the fact that you chose “joy” over “happiness,” and yes, I hope that both you and yours and me and mine find it this year =]
They are different things, but you know that already. Happy New Year, t! May the next 363 days be remarkably less interesting than the ones preceding, for both of us. I think we could use the break!
I fear I find myself saying this to you quite often, but amen my friend, amen!
Oh! my dearest Desi, the only one I know, lessons have been learned from this: don’t ever take any thing for granted, recognize that many of us have beautiful children who can be wise beyond their years, life is so short and memories like these are rare, rare indeed. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful adventure with your WordPress friends, one of whom I am more than grateful to be. I doubt we shall ever meet face to face but do we really need to? We know one another better than the girls I still hang out with now & then whom I’ve known for almost 60 years. Your life is so full of value, an actual number ($) cannot be placed upon it.
Happy New Year 2013.
Thanks so much, Lindy Lee. I’m so grateful to know you!
“Rub the condensation off the rocket porthole.” I love that Desi! You are always so eloquent in between dashes of funny and insightfulness. And always so very creative. :)
((hugs)) Thanks, Neeks. Maybe when we’re both world-famous novelists tipping sherry on the docks outside our ocean-front estates near the markets of Martinique, we can collaborate on a project, together. You can be in charge of the story, and I will be in charge of the drinking, okay? Because we really should play to our strengths :-)
Baaahahahahaa! Deal, I’ll meet you there!
It’s a date. *fist bump* =D
Happy New Year! Eat more cookies!
Happy New Year! Will do!