3 Ginger Snaps

Living life in step with the educational cycle (3 kids plus I’m a teacher…) it’s the nights before school starts that really stand out to me as the beginnings – the big days on calendar. The Sunday night wigglies are for sure a real thing in this family – and the last night of winter vacation – well that amounts to the Sunday night wigglies + infinity. (Last night of summer vacation = Sunday night wigglies + infinity + 1).

This particular last night of winter vacation is resonant for me because I remember exactly how I felt this night last year: Everyone else was going back to school on Monday morning – we weren’t – we were sifting through stacks of clothing deciding what to pack, reviewing last minute travel plans, deciding what first aid supplies we actually needed with us… it was total bedlam and we had absolutely no idea what we were doing. We just knew we were doing something different. Something that was a significant departure from the status quo. Something that felt a little risky. It was thrilling.

Contrast these people from January 2017 :

With these people in January 2018:

We haven’t slept in an airport in months. We are still trying lots of new things (This weekend Arden tried ice skating for the first and second time). Neither version of the above people would shy away from polishing off the last piece of cake… Is it cliche to pontificate on how so much has changed and yet so much has stayed the same? I think what I’m really wondering about – and what I’ve been wrestling with for a few months now that we have settled into some pretty predictable routines: is the thrill gone?

Arden was no more or less thrilled about learning how to skate than she was about taking a cooking class in Vietnam – she went for both experiences with the same kind of enthusiasm. Ruby was no more or less thrilled about polishing off the chocolate wafer cake than she was about Fantas on the beach. Am I the one with the stuck mindset about what is and isn’t a thrill? And if I am, if I am day dreaming about where I would rather be and with whom then I know I am missing out on something. Lots even. Maybe everything. Intellectually I know this and yet sometimes it is so very hard to truly live in the moment and appreciate the thrills that arrive daily. Such as drinking out of a frozen lake. Or finding a great beetle. Or tobogganing with your cousins on New Years Day.

2017 is going to be a hard year to top. And maybe that is exactly the mindset that is going to make it difficult. There is no topping last year. And for sure there are good times ahead.