Sweet Words

While taking a walk yesterday at lunchtime . . .  so you ask yourself, if she possibly going to wax on about taking a walk again today? Didn't she just talk about taking a walk in her last post?  Is that all she ever does?  And, can it possibly be that interesting? 

Well, yes, I guess it could be said I walk a lot. Because I find myself regularly plastered to a chair for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, the only time to move around during the work day, in any substantial manner, is at lunchtime.

One of the joys of living in a small town is being able to traverse the entire educational district, the shopping district, the park district, the historic district, and the riverfront district, all, in the course of one short hour.  Who could resist? 

Besides, 70 degrees with balmy breezes from the south on March 6, of all things?

As I was saying, while taking a walk yesterday, a big white he-man of a truck stopped right in the middle of the street where I was walking.  I recognized the city emblem on the truck, but did not throw up my hand in instant greeting.  You see, my son, Orion, works for the city, driving big he-man trucks around.  But, so do a lot of other men.  And, therein lies the problem.  On more than one occasion, I have thrown my arms up in big random greetings toward trucks I thought my son was driving, only to realize, no, that's not my son, and, Oh God, what must that man be thinking of the crazy woman wildly waving at him?

But when the familiar greeting rung out, "Hi Mommy", yep, I knew it was Orion. Safe for me to wave and approach the truck. We visited, oblivious to the traffic piling up behind us.  As we finished our chat and he began to drive away, his words rung out, "Love you".  He went vroom-vrooming down the street.

I finished the walk, with a lilt in my steps and immeasurable gratitude in my heart.  Never do those words cease to amaze me, to thrill me, and to move me.

Fast forward to last night.  My other son, IVee, was headed out of town this morning.  He advises a group of high school students who participate in Mock Trial.  The team advanced to the state competition by virtue of their performance at the district level, and  participated today and this evening.  I wanted to wish him well.  We exchanged several texts during the course of the evening.  His last text to me, "Love you". 

I know I didn't do all the perfect Mommy things and say all the perfect Mommy words when my boys were little.  There were more than a heap of times when I lost my temper.  And, there were more than a heap of times when they lost theirs.  I wondered if I would ever make it through their adolescence with any wits left in my head. On more than one occasion, I wondered if they would ever make it through, period. They did.  I did.  Now, we laugh, or almost laugh, at many of the angst filled moments of those times  Who were those weird people, anyhow?  And where have they gone?

Thanks, boys, you are the apples of my eye. 

Update:   IVee's rookie team won 3 of 4 awards, but did not advance to the next round in the competition.   They performed admirably, by all accounts, and look forward to kicking some state Mock Trial butt next year.  Congratulations!  The other team from their high school advanced to the quarter finals and will argue their case tomorrow.  Good luck!