Going back in time 11/07/08
There are a lot of thoughts and perspective since my first blog last month that I want to share, including experiences from some chili sauce demos but I want to share a heart warming one from November 7th.

Whenever the movie "Ghost" is on television I basically make myself watch it for in that movie is the single most difficult element of my parent's passing that I've had to deal with...the missing of physical touch. I know it's a movie and I know it's not based on a true story but just the possibility to interact with my parents again, while I'm here on Earth, makes me yearn for it.

Since their passing and since Ghost was made it has helped me to appreciate the "here and now" part of life more. It also has brought some sense and reason when certain things/traditions stop. For example, for nearly 7 years I had a weekly grocery shopping routine with my daughter. For the first few years of the seven it was just she and I and eventually my son joined us as well. It was our special time together, our one on one time that I believe every child/parent relationship needs. I envisioned that tradition continuing until they both went to college. Shortly after she turned 9 (she's 12 1/2 now)things started to change in her life and the grocery shopping tradition pretty much ended. Since that time she has leaned on her Mother for just about everything. That was tough to take and partly my own fault because I'm a conceptual person, a cause and effect person if you will. I wondered what I had done to make her not want to shop with me anymore when in reality I needed to chalk it up to something that just happens in life. I haven't found an activity to replace grocery shopping with her and I think more of that is in my daughter's control than mine. Bottomline she knows I unconditionally love her, the door to shopping will always be open and there will never be such a thing as us having too much time together.

So, while I yearn for one more classic grocery shopping trip like the old days (ala Ghost theme), I rest with the seven years of memories that no one can take from me.

Well, Friday November 7th did provide me with a second chance so to speak. Last month I wrote about Storytime and how special those four years were coming in once a week to read and talk with the children and how it hasn't worked out to happen in about 18 months. My son's 5th grade teacher managed to set aside about 20 minutes and man was it enriching. Some of the kids I had never read to before but at least 1/2 the class I did and just being with them again brought back so much for me. In addition to reading a couple of our favorite stories from the "Chicken Soup..." books we also talked a bit and I brought in poster boards from my office that showed the group pictures we took at the end of each year of Storytime so they could all see the importance of the pictures and the priority in my life it had and still has. I also brought in the "Priorities" painting, complete with words and had the children read it much like they did at the end of each year of Storytime.

It's hard to put into words all those precious 20 minutes meant to me so all of you reading this can understand and relate it to your life. I went back in time, and I also was frozen in time much like I was for those 20 minute segments I had stretched over four years. Something I thought was gone forever came back and if November 7th is to be the last time I ever read to the children at East Hill I'm okay with that, especially now having been given the gift of "one more time".

I want to thank my son's teacher. But I also want to thank my son for letting me be such a big part of his life and for always welcoming me to his class and being a small part of his school life.