by jphilo | Apr 26, 2013 | Out and About
While we waited to board our flight,
You lowered your pregnant body to the floor,
And play dolls with your daughter,
Your attention fully focused on her.
From the aisle seat across from you, I watched you
Calm your little girl, so giddy with excitement about visiting Grandma.
You had a bag full of snacks, toys, and an iPad, which occupied her
Until the command came to power it down and fasten seat belts.
Then your sweet two-and-a-half year old went ballistic.
She screamed and kicked, threw off her shoes,
Squirmed and kicked her way out of the aisle seat twice,
Until somehow you belted her securely into the window seat.
Not once did you raise your voice.
Not once did you spank her bottom or slap her hand.
Instead you told her what she had to do,
Until finally she finally obeyed and fell asleep, exhausted.
Tears streamed down your face,
As you gazed through the window,
Too ashamed to make eye contact with me
Or the other passengers who’d witnessed the scene.
While your eyes were fixed on blue sky and clouds,
A packet of tissues and a note found its way into the empty seat beside you.
“Every parent on this plane’s been where you are today,” the note said.
“You’re a good mommy. Always remember that.”
photo source
by jphilo | Apr 23, 2013 | Top Ten Tuesday
Hmmm…is the topic of time management really so sad?
Last weekend, I attended the 2013 Accessibility Summit near Washington, DC. As always, traveling is a wonderful opportunity to people watch and be reminded of life outside my own circumstances. It also leads to a multitude of random travel observations, which you’ll be relieved to know have been gleaned to this top ten:
10. Skinny pants still don’t look good on anyone over the age of 8.
9. From the looks of things, 90% of this year’s pansy seedlings are beautifying the highways and byways of the DC area. What will the rest of the country do if spring ever when spring moves further west?
8. I felt very cosmopolitan walking around the international terminal at the Waskington Dulles airport. However, I looked very midwestern. Sigh.
7. God, pour our your blessings on parents traveling with infants and toddlers.
6. Seeing green leaves sprouting on trees, red bud and crab apple blossoms, and tulips in bloom several weeks before they bloom in the rest of the country makes jet lag worthwhile.
5. When your luggage on the way home is heavy with unsold books, all you have to do is ask someone to help, and they will. Don’t ask how I know this.
4. Flight attendants deserve more pay.
3. My friend Rebekah Hamilton of Key Ministry has ushered in a whole new era for non-profit fund raising. Turn paper toilet seat covers into fashionable headgear and people will pay to see someone else wear them in public.
2. Kuddos to the Dulles airport staff for handling a medical emergency with a minimum of fanfare and a maximum of speed and competence. You are amazing!
1. Walking around the airport and watching crowds of people from different places and cultures milling about, realizing many more people are milling about airports all over the world, the words of a hymn came to mind:
How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure,
That He should give His Son for us,
To make a wretch His treasure.
How deep and vast indeed!
What travel observations have you made lately? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Feb 4, 2013 | Daily Life, Reviews
Regularly scheduled programming will resume as soon the writer quits coughing, finds a new box of tissues, and recovers from taking a dizzy tumble in the kitchen.
photo credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net
by jphilo | Dec 31, 2012 | Daily Life
2012 is ending with a bang at our house. Not because we’ve been invited to a rockin’ New Year’ Eve party. But because our long lost, prodigal tweezers have been found.
Some of you may recall the sad fairy tale this grim mother wrote in May. The fairy tale that bemoaned the loss of the excellent pair of tweezers we had owned for many, many years. The fairy tale about our inability to replace them with a pair of comparable calibar. For those of you who don’t remember the tale or never read it, now you understand the unibrow I sported all summer and fall.
But not anymore.
Because the man of steel found the tweezers in his toiletry travel bag. The discovery was so exciting, we greeted our prodigal tweezers with open arms. “So you don’t care that the tweezers were lost for six months in my toiletry bag?” Hiram asked.
“Not one bit,”I replied. “Let’s kill the fatted calf and have a feast! Let’s dress the tweezers in a fine robe and slip a gold ring on its finger.”
“Tweezers don’t have fingers,” the man of steel reminded me.
With a perky little shake of my head, I answered, “That’s okay, because I’ve got ten of them.” Then I used my fingers to pick up those tweezers and start plucking.
How can 2013 possibly be any better than this?
by jphilo | Oct 22, 2012 | Out and About
For more than a week, I’ve been on the road. Whether the travel’s been for personal or professional reasons, the time behind the wheel left plenty of time for this Monday’s musings.
- Being a grandma is the best job ever.
- Fall is a lovely time for traveling in the Midwest.
- Panera has the healthiest fast food (and tastiest coffee) of any franchise chain.
- My new mission in life is to explain to food service workers that “dairy-free” means more than no visible cheese, yogurt, or ice cream on whatever you order.
- Box elder bugs are taking over the world.
- Dorothy knew what she was talking about when she clicked those ruby slippers together and said there’s no place like home–even when you get home and find box elder bugs are waiting to greet you–lined up three deep on the threshold.
What are your latest travel musings? Leave a comment.
