Insights for April

When my son was maybe 2, he loved mail trucks. I ordered him a UPS truck, presented it to him. He was delighted, played with it all the time. Soon it stayed in the toy box a little longer. Now. he’s 6. I found the truck in the backyard today, rusted and dirty. I’ll probably throw it out, but not tonight. Being a parent is going through these types of emotions endlessly.

I’m realizing lately that time is moving faster. I was always careful, slow. A late bloomer. I see now how that was a detriment in many ways.

I have a box full of band stickers from when I was a teenager. Never stuck them on anything, it was so permanent. Saving them for a rainy day. Most of the bands have now broken up, gotten real jobs. Have kids, maybe even grandkids.

I have a friend who buys and sells guitars constantly. He’s been playing for five years.

Me, I’ve been playing for 30 years. I bought my first electric in ’96. Another in maybe ’02. And my most recent one in ’21.

I have them all still. I play them all. None are perfect.  I actually spend a lot of time thinking about my perfect guitar. I’ll look for it online, think about building it. The. I think, I should just enjoy the guitars I have. Guitars are a lot of money.

Someday though I won’t be able to play guitar anymore. Will I ever have the perfect guitar?

I’ve read to my son before bed nearly every night of his life. Starting with baby board books and now we read chapter books. I’ve been wanting to share Narnia with him, but I always think he’d enjoy it more when he’s older. I realized today that soon he won’t want me to read to him before bed.

I remember my mom reading chapter books to me. One day, when I was a year older than my son is now, she asked if I wanted to read a bit. I took over. I kept reading. She was so excited for me! I took it to my room and kept reading and reading. From that point on I read alone.

It was Boxcar Children: Mystery Behind the Wall. My whole childhood I called it my favorite book, mostly because of that amazing experience. I never thought how my mother must have felt – excited and maybe somewhat abandoned.

We started Narnia tonight. He asked me to define a lot of the words. He asked what year it was written, because he didn’t know a lot of the words. It’s probably too soon