It's bee
n a while since I've posted - I guess "life" has been occupying me a lot lately and not affording me the time I might otherwise use to log my thoughts and philosophies here. But I had an experience last night that compelled me to sit down at the computer this morning and express some things that were happily dancing around in my head.As a separatee (and probably soon to be divorcee), I live apart from my wife and children - I have two boys, ages 11 and 9. I have them with me for visitation every other weekend, with this being one of those weekends. I look forward to these visits with such anticipation. :)
On a normal Friday night with the boys, I would pick them up from their mom, then swing by the local pizza restaurant (called Bella Luna - I love that name, btw) and get a delicious pizza pie to take out and then eat while winding down in front of some T.V. at my apartment. But last night, my dear Conor boy had his first ever school dance. He is a sixth grader, and although I remember having my first "crush" on a girl when I was in 6th grade, Conor has confessed to me that he doesn't yet like girls. And so, I imagined the dance to be, well, not anything more than just hanging out with all of his friends, hearing some great music, and doing a bit of jumping around every now and then. And in speaking to him when I picked him up afterward, it turned out that that was more or less what it was. Still, it was delightful to see Conor "growing up" in this fashion. :)
But the most beautiful part of the night came with my other son Brett. While Conor was at his dance, Brett and I had some time to ourselves, so instead of the customary pizza, I suggested sushi at the local Japanese restaurant. Brett and Conor both love sushi, so I knew that Brett would be fine with this idea. And so, we popped in to Yukhi, ordered sushi to take out, and then ran an errand while the order was being readied.
Upon our return to the restaurant to pick up our food, we discovered that we didn't have enough time to go home and eat before having to go back out to pick up Conor from his dance. And the food was already bagged up, so we didn't really wanna ask them to set us up at a table to eat there either. So what did we do? We improvised. :) I said "Brett, do you wanna just eat in the car?" He was game, so we went out into the parking lot, I started up the car and got the heat going, turned on the car's dome light, and then joined Brett in the back seat.
Upon opening up the food bag, I discovered that they had only given us one set of chopsticks. So now what, do we go back inside and ask for another set? I decided not to, and instead, suggested to Brett that we share the chopsticks and take turns eating. He was more than happy to do so, and so this was how we dined. :) Brett and I, sitting in the back seat of my car, taking turns eating our rainbow rolls and sipping the miso soup that the restaurant had put in a styrofoam cup for us. At least three times Brett said to me "This is fun, Dad." I couldn't have been more tickled. :)
After finishing up our very enjoyable meal together - and one that was truly shared - we proceeded to Conor's school to pick him up from the dance. Brett and I were really in a great state of bonding as we waited together outside the school, anxiously waiting for Conor to appear as we shivered in the sub-freezing temperature of this early January night in Washingtonville. Conor had a soft joy on his face as he emerged through the school's doors, and as Brett and I swapped stories with Conor about our respective evenings, we all three carried this beautiful mood all the way to bed time.
With experiences like this, I'm reminded that it's the small things in life that really matter. And Friday, January 8, 2010 was a most precious example of this for me.
Viva la vida, my friends, and take joy in all the small things....
