Saturday, August 20, 2011

Life without written words

Hi Friends,
My week of reading deprivation has come to a close.  I'm feeling refreshed and full of life experiences. It was difficult to stop my habit of reading, and at least once I gave in to peek at your comments (thank you for your wonderfulness!)

While away from the world of text, time slowed.  I recognized the arrival and release of various emotions.  I felt less distracted and enjoyed reconnecting with my husband, children and neighbors.

On Thursday, Richard and I decided to have an adventure downtown.  At Cheescakes by Alex, we shared conversation in the fading light, enjoying the sights and sounds of passing traffic and people.   At heart, Richard is a philosopher and I get wrapped up in the way his mind unfolds. 

It felt like we were in Europe.  At a sidewalk cafe, he enjoyed a scone and tea, while I munched on an Italian biscotti and coffee.  After our desert, we walked leisurely with hands clasped, under streetlamps, over cobblestones.  Passing great old buildings, we found ourselves admiring the marquee at the historic Carolina Theater.  We had arrived just in time to catch one of the summer film fest movies.  Inside this grand, old theater with huge marble pillars, we were carried to a past era of grand ambition.  We sat in the balcony, feeling small in the vast space that was lit with low lights on the side balcony seats.  The place conjured images of opera, of live theater and symphony.

We sat enthralled, watching ocean waves and surfers on the screen.  The film was Point Break with Keeanau Reeves and Patrick Swayze.

  What else could a girl ask for? I've always had this longing to go back in time and meet Richard in our younger lives.  Watching an eighties movie helped to make that illusion feel real.  Like teenagers, we skipped the boring parts of the movie to explore the theater and found a ball room on the third floor.  While the movie played below us, Richard twirled me around the dance floor in the dark.  The only light came from frosted glass windows, giving the illusion it was snowing outside.

After the movie ended, we returned home to the kids, all cuddled up and ready for sleep.


Today we are spending the last full day with Emily.   Yet we'll share a closing adventure as a family.  We have been invited to a wedding reception in Raleigh.  We've booked a hotel in our State Capitol.  I'm looking forward to wearing my new green dress, to seeing my high school friend and her prince charming. 

Last night I dreamed that Elliot boarded the plane with Emily.  I ran around the terminal searching for my son.  Then, around a corner appeared a security officer, waving.  Elliot was running to me, and slammed into me with wide open arms.  It was a message to appreciate the child still left to me.  That although I must release Emily for a while, Elliot is still here and is feeling this loss too. 

We will do it together.  Make it though until we are together again.


7 comments:

  1. Jenny that was a wonderful story of love, tenderness and memory making. You and Richard had one of those moments that most couples dream about and I am so glad you two have that closeness. My post today is about our great state and the beauty if holds for whoever will check it out. Have a great weekend.
    Odie

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  2. what a beautiful post! your little excursion sounds so lovely. i'd love to be able to enjoy that type of outing but there's no little cobblestone streets or outdoor cafes in my neck of the woods. we do have a very old theater in wichita where the temptations are performing on september 2. i'd love to attend but probably won't. hehehe -

    love your dream with the meaning attached. i hope emily has a great time and when she's home on visits you'll enjoy her that much more.

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  3. Lovely post! I'm glad you're feeling refreshed after your break and it sounds as if you did some lovely things - in fact, you were doing the IMPORTANT things!! Yes, you're right, Elliott will miss Emily as well when she goes back. I think it might do us all good if we spent a week or two away from our computers, facebook etc. I'm sure the world won't come to an end, and we will be living life again and really appreciating all our many blessings.

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  4. Firstly, love your new profile picture...with the gray showing, of course :)

    How good to read about your fun outing with Richard. Your adventure would make the perfect script for a movie. Your beautifully told story of a couple so comfortably and happily in love, enjoying themselves without a care on their minds, translated so vividly into a romantic, mental image. So glad you had this special time just for each other.

    I was thinking about you the other day, knowing your time with Emily was getting shorter and shorter by the day and I'd fully intended to share the following insights with you...for Elliot, this will be his first experience as an only child, having your full and undivided attention outside of his home-schooling curriculum. This is a precious opportunity for both of you to connect on an even deeper level, whilst for Emily, this will be her fledgling experience of life away from home, a safe way for her to learn to be independent in ways she will not yet have encountered. This year will present each of you with opportunities to grow in new ways and, hopefully, this will make her absence a little easier for all to bear.

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  5. Your evening with Richard sounds enchanting, truly. Glad time slowed enough for you to enjoy the week. I hope that Emily's departure, although hard in seeing her go, enhances thoughts of how exciting it must be for her. Yes, you will reunite as a whole again, and with it will be new experiences to be shared by all. I wish you all the very best.

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  6. Sweet - what a lovely evening with your husband. Although it's hard to see your daughter go, I know you'll find a different level of closeness with her from now on. She'll realize all you've been to her, and you'll be able to share all her new experiences.

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  7. What a great story the evening sounds wonderful something I would love to do except I am married to a tight ass who never wants to go anywhere or do anything well it seems that way at times......but I am still in love with him after 28 yrs

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