Paradise brings various thoughts to mind. For me, it’s a hot beach, cool ocean breeze and time away from it all.
Unfortunately, this year, there will be no great escape. Since my husband was involved in the international oil strike, we’ve decided we should allocate our money to other things and skip going on a big trip this year.
Of course, I’ve reasoned we can do all sorts of other fun things like spending time on the boat, biking and day trips. Somehow Grayson Lake is not quite the beach, but everything is always better somewhere near the water.
Universally, people of all ages relate to music. Music makes us want to dance and sing, and recalls memories to our minds – some happy, some sad – but always seeming to shed light on simple truths in our lives.
Sometimes songs can even take us back to a particular moment in time, and it’s like we are there, living it all over again. Maybe you are on a family road trip, 16 and driving your car too fast, with your first love or even saying your final goodbyes.
Music has the ability to draw us back, by making us feel exactly as we did then.
Days and moments pass us by all the time. It becomes easy to not fully appreciate what you have until it’s gone. And sometimes, we don’t even realize the significance of a moment until later in life.
My dad is no longer here, and yet I think about him all the time. It’s beginning to get harder to remember the sound of his voice. In fact, it’s funny, but it seems I can recollect it best in memories of him singing to me as I would go to sleep as a child.
Kids like to pick their battles. Some throw fits over eating vegetables, while others develop a fear of water at bath time. For my kids, it’s simple, they just hate going to bed. And their main objective in life these days is to do the opposite of what I want. So when I want peace and quiet, they want chaos.
My boys try to throw all-night pajama parties by explaining they’re nocturnal creatures, and they’re allowed to stay up all night. I have to put my foot down and say, no, you are not nocturnal, and you need your sleep. Yes, I admit to them, animal parents must be nicer than we are.
When this doesn’t work, I try to take the scientific approach and explain our senses are better adapted during daylight hours, while some animals are better adapted for the dark. But this doesn’t stop them … after all, we have battery-operated flashlights and electricity on our side.
