a perfect day

Today was as perfect a day as any mortal should hope for.

I woke up to two joyful children screeching with glee and one loving husband. Our orange cat was mistakenly locked in the basement, but I like her alright, too. I ate steamy oatmeal with my girls and made a towering mug of my new caffeine treat, yunnan tea, and then took my first shower in many days. I then put on clean clothes and left for Lost Coast Camp where I did a mandated reporter and child abuse training for the camp counselors. As always, I was moved by what an exceptional experiential place LCC is for kids. People who do supportive and empowering work with kids should be celebrated as heroes in our culture. Instead, they are wildly underpaid and chronically un-recognized.

Anyway, back to my perfect day. After my LCC presentation/discussion, I took my kids plus our dear nearly four-year old friend Nick to the beach where it was atypically windless and cerulean. We plopped in the warm sand and drove boats through the “waves” (of sand), buried firefighter faith and her cronies, gobbled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and asked passers-by if they’d caught anything with their wet fishing poles. When nap time made itself known, we followed a stout lizard back to the car and loaded up for home. After a failed nap attempt, Blase joined us and we all made bean salad and danced to random songs. As we approached dinner time, it began to feel like a holiday and all of our preparations for leaving the messy house were tinged with sparkling and festive expectation for the gatherings to come.

The world’s most beautiful drive brought us to the Smith’s annual 4th of July party. We feasted, laughed, hugged, chatted, and headed off at sunset to another friend’s party up river. There, under a dome of blazing stars we giggled with friends and watched the band while our children slept heavily on our Blase’s back and my hip. I fell asleep instantly as I rested my head to settle the baby in bed. We all woke up dusty and a bit tired but full from the day before.

What was so perfect about this day? I think it was the balance of work time/professional self, focused kid time, all-together time, cooking yummy food, looking forward to special event, and festive friend time at annual gatherings. More of my selves were engaged than they are on usual days, I guess. That’s quite a privilege.