Flying

My first story telling piece

We come home from the school run with a homemade kite waiting to be tried out, so I send the girls outside. G, my oldest daughter, gets distracted by decorating the kite with her new stamps and glitter glue. A, my second daughter, joins in with her own scrap paper.

I'm exhausted from a head cold and sit, stretched out, on a cushioned chair with my legs up on another chair. There's a pleasant breeze swishing the bottlebrush tree. The girls are contentedly creating while G sings over and over "Jesus to the rescue" in different ways. I'm the only one snacking on the crackers and nuts because, despite being sick and having a smoothie before going to pick G up, I'm still peckish. I'm hoping having some food will give me the energy I need to prepare dinner and make a loaf of bread in the breadmaker. It doesn't seem to be working much.

In the distant sky I hear the faint chirping of small birds and it makes me think of the New Holland Honeysuckers that came to our yard two afternoons ago. They had flitted from the purple tree to the grevillea and then six of them washed and splashed in the bird bath. I had run inside to get my camera to capture it. I'd never seen so many birds in my bird bath! But by the time I came back they were all clean and had moved back into the purple tree. I may not have taken a photo with my camera but there's a memory locked away in my brain, and as Chris tells me all the time, my eyes will take better photos than any camera will, if I just stop to soak it in.

G is waiting for a gust of wind to help her kite fly. I'm trying not to express my doubt to her and to just let her experiment and try. She comes up to me and asks me how to fly a kite. I explain as kindly as I can that the other kite we have has a tail and a frame and is made differently to help it fly. Why doesn't she try running around with it to get it to fly, I suggest. And so she does. And that satisfies her. It is enough for her to see her kite take off a little, flying directly behind her, as she runs.

I wrote this over a year ago now and life has changed so much. We've moved house, we've added a little boy to the family, and both girls go to school now, one full time and one part time. The block of time between after school and dinner is now a chaotic mix of snacking, doing homework, making sure G gets some form of exercise, keeping the baby happy, getting dinner ready, showering the girls and finally, with a sigh of relief, sitting down together to eat before the bedtime routine. 

It used to be a lot slower. It used to be a time I could be present with the girls as they played together before going to make dinner. Even better if we could spend the afternoon together outside or at the local park. 

Life, now, is good in many ways. I wouldn't change it. I'm so grateful for this new house and for this gorgeous sunshine boy in my arms. I love seeing the girls grow and learn. 

But there are parts of that life I truly miss. I miss the simpler afternoons, when G didn't have homework we had to make her do and that getting her to do exercise was just fun, and not such a hassle. I miss those birds. So much. And the different flowering trees. I miss having the time to sit outside just to watch the girls play and then still have time to make dinner. 

And life, now, is just plain busy. Maybe a better word is full. There's not a lot of extra time to put aside the to-do list and carve out time to just be outside with my lovely kids. Maybe that makes it all the more important. Maybe, like G with her kite, I need to let the little moments of rest and connection be enough, even if I'm not quite flying how I'd like to.