Today Was A Good Day

Today was a good day.

Today there was sunshine.  Endless blue skies, not a raindrop in sight.  Pure, unadulterated spring sunshine.  “Cumulus clouds!” my daughter chirped excitedly.  “No stratus clouds today!”  I smile as I hear her recall snippets of my former first-grade-teacher-self.

“Let’s walk to the library!” I announced triumphantly. Roughly a mile there and back, sky free of stratus clouds, why not?  I was feeling adventurous.  Eager break our afternoon rut and imprint a fond memory onto their tiny brains in lieu of yet another day playing Calico Critters dollhouse or watching a repeat letter of the day announcement on Sesame Street.  

Just past the school we encountered the hill.  My out of shape mommy brain overcompensated the terrain of our expedition, it’s just a little hill I chided myself.  After all, this is a hill that rises and falls effortlessly when traversed by car, I barely register the extra horsepower in my Subaru.  Turns out, not the case by stroller-- correction, double stroller.  Two kids weighing 30 and 35 pounds respectively.  That and the five pounds of granola bars I packed in case of emergency suddenly felt like anchors as we began our ascent.  

“Why are we going so slow?!” she whined.

“Sweetie, this is a big hill,” I breathed, feeling my body comically move to a 90 degree angle against the handlebars in order to push us forward.  

I imagined what passersby vehicles must be thinking.  Oh...come on! Is the stroller really that heavy?  I found myself silently wishing for a honk of encouragement, complimentary or otherwise.

“Keep going Mommy, we’ve got a long way, this hill is still going!”

“Uh huh,” I agreed, gulping in breaths, pushing us steadily upward as we summited our hill.

My son gleefully kicked his dangling feet in the front seat, unperturbed by Mommy’s slow pace.  

Once the hill plateaued, sweat perspiring on my forehead, I felt a surge of energy.  A renewed spirit and lightness of foot, despite my aching legs.  We came upon swarms of fat yellow dandelions sprouting up out of the pavement.  I could’ve kept moving, I could’ve rolled right by, but I felt the urge to stop and savor this moment.  Kicking on the stroller break, I knelt beside them, their eyes wide with curiosity as I gently picked a fluffy stalk for each.  Exhaling a full breath, I showed them how to blow the seeds into the wind and make a wish.  I smiled through staccato bursts of warm breath on my face, their seeds spiralling into the wind and each other's hair while making sweet silent toddler wishes.

We made it to the library, swapped out our books and headed home, traversing the same path downhill and to our little local park.  I resisted the urge to pull out my phone and document,  shelving my desire to snap a photo or capture a brief video clip for my 1 Second Everyday montage.  

Be present.  Be in this moment I reminded myself.  This is the real memory; not the one you captured in a screen. Memorize this, remember this.  The warmth of the sun in the late afternoon stratus-cloud-free sky. The overstuffed bottom compartment of our stroller, bursting with library books selected by sticky, chubby fingers.  The excited purse of little lips and focused faces blowing fuzzy dandelion seeds into the wind.  The delighted giggles as they slid down the slide together, side by side for the first time.

Today was a good day.  

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