Orange

Today I would like to post something from my guest blogger, Colton. He is my 12 year old dynamo. His school assignment was to write descriptive lines about the color orange. Being the child of the earth that he is, he would rather have written about his favorite color which is green, but he didn't have a choice. So, I am happy to present his beautifully written description of orange.

Orange is… A radiant sunset piercing the deep blue sky. A wildfire mightily raging through a greenery of trees. Macaroni and Cheese patiently waiting to be consumed. Heat on a dry, summer day. A candle flame bravely shining light into the pitch black darkness. Explosions relentlessly sending startling noises all over. A tiger stalking its prey in a lush overgrowth of tall grass. A creamsicle, luring all to come chow on it. A fresh peach plucked from its mothering tree. The elegant changes in the leaves every fall. Sand dunes captive to the fierce blowing winds. A safety vest, alerting passersby because of its bright defiance of all surrounding colors. Strength and persistence, both in physical and mental aspects.

Walking and Talking

I took a walk with my 12 year old son a couple days ago. Walking with him is not like a spectator sport, in which you just walk and take in nature in silence. Walking with him is an event that you have to fully participate in. He talks and talks and thinks that if I don't talk it means that I am not enjoying his company, which is certainly not true. I usually just tend to walk silently and use it as mental down time.

Not the case with our walks together. He begins by asking simple questions, "what is your favorite movie?", "what is your favorite color?" I think he uses these to draw me into further conversation. We continue to plod along the dirt road.

Then the questions become more deep and soon he is asking me, "what were your dreams and passions?", "what was your worst childhood memory?, "how did you pick your friends when you were my age?" I realize that in asking these questions, he is asking for guidance in his life. He is struggling at this awkward middle school age with these very issues, and it is easiest for him to ask them while we are walking side-by-side on the road. We discuss so many topics that it is more of a mental workout than a physical workout. I'm just grateful that he is talking to me at this age and that he cares about what I have to say.

Before I know it, he is giving me advice. He tells me that I get stressed too easily, and that instead of getting myself overwhelmed and freaking out, that I need to keep it all in perspective and think about the positive aspects of tasks that I am working on. He says this works for him when he has a lot of homework. In all of his 12 year old wisdom, he tells me what to do to be happier. He also recognizes that I put everyone else's needs before my own, and he tells me it's all right to take care of myself first. Easier said than done for me. Sad when my son has to remind me of this.

When we head back into our house, I realize he has probably taught me more during the walk than I have taught him. He is wise beyond his years. He is simply amazing.

Now that the weather is getting warmer, I'm looking forward to many more walks with him. If you see us on the road, we will be the ones walking with our mouths wide open, sharing dreams and memories. He taught me that I do have the talent to walk and talk at the same time.

Scattered brilliant thoughts

Days started going by, and then a couple weeks passed. I realize as I look at my blog title that to the outside world it looks like my lack of writing recently has been due to having no brilliant thoughts, not even occasional ones. Au contraire! I have had multiple brilliant thoughts but they have been hitting me like shooting stars in the night time sky. A fantastic thought comes to mind, I get really excited about it, and then I look away and I lose the ability to concentrate on writing it down. I simply haven't made the time in my life recently to focus on what I want to do with my writing.

It has been so easy to watch everything else happen around me to everyone else. My work has been crazy busy lately which happens to finance and accounting type people this time of year. In my spare time, I watch baseball games and softball games, run animals to the vet, wash clothes, clean house, feed all living things in my house, plant gardens, and so on. While I enjoy doing many of these things (maybe not the housework part), I am falling back into the rut of letting everyone else live their lives while I observe and play cheerleader. I know this is often my role as a mom, but it should not mean that I sacrifice my writing for everything else. I need my own personal cheerleader to keep me on track.

The ironic part of thinking that I don't have time to write is that I really do have the time if I take advantage of snippets of time. For instance, this weekend my baseball player needs to be at the fields at 9 am to warm up before a 10 am game. Instead of sitting idly for this hour chatting with the other moms, I will take my pen and paper and write for awhile. I'm realizing that if I just wait until I can sit at the computer and have the perfect words come out, I will be waiting a long time. All of the brilliant thoughts I have during the day are getting lost because they don't get down on paper.

So, coming soon, hopefully, will be more than just occasional brilliant thoughts. I would be happy writing regular thoughts much more often with moments of brilliance scattered within.