Why I Blog on Ordinary Days

A few days ago after my sister discovered my blog - she asked me why I was blogging. She said she "got" how just the act of writing about my life and my experiences helped me to process them but she was curious as to why I wanted to do it publicly. Part of it is the commitment factor. Even though I am a writer, I have never been able to consistently keep a journal. And yet when I look back at all the photo books I have created - particulalrly the ones I have done since Liam was born - I see how much they provide me with a link to thoughts and feelings that would otherwise be forgotten. Writing does that even better - and blogging is like publishing, which I know how to do and know I will stick with. So that is one reason why I blog.

The other is just that, as I get older, I long for the sense of community that comes from being with people that see the world the way I do and all the joy that comes from building friendships and helping and supporting others through everything that life throws at us. In the course of my day I come across a lot of things that make me laugh, make me cry, make me angry, make me wistful..... and my blog is my way of sharing them in the hope that they bring joy to someone else, or help them cope with something they are finding challenging.

One of my dear friends is a lady I get to see all too little as she lives in New Hampshire and we are both busy working moms so there is never as much time to chat as we would like. But she touches my heart each time we speak - or even email. This week she sent me this. The Gift of Ordinary Days needs no introduction. I loved it. I hope you do too.

Fun with Flipper

In the last week of the school summer vacation I took Liam on a little mini vacation down in the Florida Keys. We’ve been to Key West a couple of times before but this time we stayed at a resort on Duck Key – which is only about half way down – 10 miles north of Marathon. The main draw card for us was the chance to interact with dolphins – and as you can see from the photos below we got to do just that.

At first they said they only had room for one more in the program on the last day of our trip – so I booked it for Liam, being a little worried that he wouldn’t trot off without me and follow all the instructions properly if I wasn’t there (typical mom huh?!)  I needn’t have worried because he wasn’t the slightest bit perturbed but just after they got started with the “class room” which is the 10 minutes in which they go over the drill of what to do and what not to do – the lady who had checked us in came out to me and said they had room for me if I wanted to do it. I immediately said “Oh no that’s alright my son seems OK” and then I thought “What am I thinking? Why does he get to have all the fun?” and so I scurried in there as fast as my feet would take me. We were just on the dock giving the dolphins and commands (and lots of fish.) They have a swimming interaction program but Liam is too young for that yet.

It was still great. There is something just magical about those creatures. The trainers were giving us lots of practical information about the dolphins – their life span, their size, their speed, what they eat – but my head was filled with tales of mermaids and shipwrecks and every hour I spent in the water as a kid swimming with my feet together pretending to have a tail after watching reruns of “Flipper.”

Liam was suitably impressed – particularly with the fact that a couple of the dolphins had pink tummies. We may be growing out of a few things but we’re still secretly big on pink. He talked about Twister and Sherman for days and can still remember the names of all the other dolphins we saw long after I’ve forgotten them. I have a feeling that those few moments of touching that slippery, smooth skin will stand out in his mind long after everything else in his ten week summer vacation has faded. I can’t wait till he is old enough for us to go swimming with them!

Batten Down the Hatches

Interactive Hurricane History

My thoughts are with all my friends on the East Coast dealing with Irene this weekend. Thankfully the storm is weakening but it remains a threat and they are in for a wet and windy weekend at best. My first experience of a hurricane was Wilma in 2005. She arrived in Florida literally a few days after I did and definitely had me thinking " Good lord - what have I done moving here?" Ulimately my house had little damage - but the neighborhood and town were hit hard and the memories won't soon be forgotten.

If you click on the link above - you get a very cool interactive map from the Wall Street Journal that shows the paths of all the hurricanes in the last six years. Let's hope Irene does nothing to make her more memorable than the countless ones here we barely even know about.