Perspectives

Robin has three boys, Jamie (15), Danny (12) and Scottie (10). They went back to school today. The house feels empty. Imagine the quiet.

When 10 year old Scottie's friends Joey and Kevin stopped to pick him up to walk to school Robin heard him say,"hey guys, come see what we did in the back yard."
"Wow!" they said. "and you helped?"
"Yeah, I knocked the nails out of the wood with a hammer."
"Wow!"
Don't you love it?

Having a ten year old around would really help with keeping the big things in perspective.

We have an 8 am flight to Dulles tomorrow morning meaning we will have to leave the house at dawn. No matter what time we leave it will be hard. We have been here three weeks and so having this family around us feels routine as well as special. It will be our house that is abnormally quiet when we get home.

All right, all right. I will welcome some of that quiet and getting back my focus on my list. I have storytelling gigs to prepare for and stuff to write and etc and etc. Jim will get back to his routine and seeing patients. But it will not take the place of the vitality of life with three active boys-and their stream of friends who move through here.

I am looking forward to coming back in February for a few days when I am out to tell stories at the Rogue Festival in Fresno.