When the wonderful midday yoga teacher somehow gets everyone to face the back wall instead of the windows and then has everyone in downward dog, what happens is this: you see the gorgeous old buildings across Main Street and the sky above from upside down. I have to admit I’d never seen that particular view from that particular perspective before.
There is something about that moment. It’s stuck with me. And I feel like I’m going to understand why it resonated… in the fullness of time. But this I’m sure about: that I got to see everything upside down and backwards and liked what I saw, that’s somehow, well, good on the first day two kids began their summer vacation. I will try not to have a knee-jerk response that goes you’re wrecking my work life, kids. I’ll try to remember summer is supposed to be fun, for all of us.
If you were beside me right now as I write this, you’d witness a weak smile. The yoga teachers all say that smiling, even if you are just faking it, works. Your body does not know the difference. Let’s go with that.
Just about the last minute of school–everyone up and dancing to the words “bow-wow”
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Here are three good things on a Tuesday: 1) I actually believe the kids are all going to have great summers, 2) I made more jam and have really started to relax into the notion that jamming is a meditative act, and 3) the tiny sadness of my broken necklace has morphed into the bigger happiness that the artist, my friend Donnabelle Casis, made me a new one and I got a cute little one for Saskia and a backup for myself, so that I don’t wind up without one again—even for a week or two. Moral of my three good things is that it’s nice to take care of yourself as well as others.
I’m linking to three things you might love to see. Each features a friend’s accomplishment. The best thing to say about this is that I have me some very talented pals. Here goes:
My friend Valle Dwight wrote this column about her son’s run for Vice President of the Student Council at our high school. That doesn’t seem like a particularly moving essay topic, but read this; it so, so, so is.
Much as I adore my friend Gayle Kabaker’s New Yorker cover, the story of how it got there makes the whole thing that much more adorable. Admire. Read.
Somehow my friend Bill Childs (a lawyer by day—and sometimes night) got it into his head to become a kindie (kids’ indie) music guy. He’s got a radio, and puts together a pretty impressive roster of events. And then he wanted to raise money for Haiti, so he did—through kindie music and the inaugural release of a CD called Many Hands. Now, he’s raising money in support of girls’ science and engineering, though the release of Science Fair. Launching July 3rd, watch this space. I’ll have a copy to give away and I’ll tell you lots more about the music and all that good stuff.
