A Walk on the Mild Side

Dropped B and the kids at sports in the park and ran with Lilly to do late night (7pm) shopping, not my best time but an hour I can do it - still wearing dirty clothes from the entire day when I thought I better change out of this and then the day ran together like a Japanese water color painting in a rainstorm and nothing got done except kids, kids everywhere and a pretty teacher was sitting in my yard and there was a rooster her mom gave me and chocolate chip cookies we made last night and kids jumping on the trampoline and wait, life is flowing around me like rain --

but back to the shopping, Lilly in the cart who hasn't taken a poop in 4 days and she's eating a lik a stick candy (she calls Butterfingers Fingerchocolate) and there's this large woman talking to me, she knows me she says, I have all the blonde children and suddenly she's talking to me about middle schools, where are we going to send Nathan and I'm thinking do I know you and then yes, she's the one with the adopted Russian kid and yes as she talks about the research she's done on the schools, Yes I remember you're NUTS. Nice enough. But if I had your brain I would have been nervously scratching paint off the walls with pennies -she just vibrates at a different speed, a not good speed. And I realize that you know what, my kid is going to be fine. He's going to go to whatever school is good enough, he's going to stay smart and happy and tall and blonde and we're going to enjoy Christmas and it doesn't matter this whole education thing. Community matters.

But the lady is moving on with her cart and she tells me I used to see you walking to school with your kids all around you, you look so relaxed (she missed the yelling section, apparently, of every morning) she said "I would slow down and just cry because I couldn't have children, and I would think 'that lady has it going on...'" Weird to think there are people looking at your life thinking you have everything, thinking you're doing it right. How reassuring in this haphazard world that somewhere, to someone I present this loving and nurturing scene to the world - that someone can be affected by just a walk to school. The everyday. The little things do matter.