Currently I am reading The Power of Moments by the Heather Brothers and have found many life applications within just the first 4 chapters. The book's authors believe that we moments matter and we can shape those moments into lasting memories. A very compelling idea indeed.
One of the ideas says to "break the script" - bust up the mundane or expected with a powerful moment.
It's interesting as I ponder and reflect on this concept, the eyes of my heart start to look for opportunities to create moments, to be intentional with something unexpected. Here are a few:
(This obviously occured previous to reading the book, but the concept was there)
One Sunday afternoon, I asked the family to go on an adventure with me. I knew the kids would be resistant to going so I set up a few delights along the way. East of Coeur d 'Alene there is a trail called "Trail of the Coeur d 'Alenes" which is an old rail road track turned into a paved bicycle path, similar to the Centennial Trail. What makes this trail so spectacular is that is goes along the Coeur d 'Alene river - it's actually breathtaking.
Having looked at the weather report, I knew that we were going to have one of the last warm, sunny days of the year and that the leaves were in their full fall glory.
We started out in the car and the children, I mean tweens, were not in the mood to go anywhere and let me Balin and I know for a full 30 mintutes until I finally said, "ENOUGH" in my kindest, mom tone. We were going on an adventure and it was going to be fun.
Arriving at our destination, pulling the bikes off the car and starting out both kids were somewhat sullen. Balin and Sam started off and soon were far ahead of Perrin and I. After 10 minutes of riding, Perrin looked over at me and said, "Mom, sorry I complained about coming today. I am really enjoying myself - it's so beautiful out. I want to go outside more often and excercise, it's just so hard to get going." A beautiful memory for Perrin and I.
After 20 minutes or so, Perrin and I pulled up alongside Balin and Sam. Sam slowed down and kindly said, "Mom, when I complain like I did in the car, just ignore me. I really am enjoying this and am really thankful we're here." Two moments in 30 minutes.
Our small group from church decided that we wanted to do more "living together". We got our calendars out and made some plans for December. One of those plans involved ice skating. Spokane has been investing a huge amount into the downtown area and my favorite project thus far is the ice skating ribbon. There's nothing like it on the West Coast. Instead of an ice rink, it's a swath-like a river, of ice that meanders. It's got a section of small downhill and then a bit of uphill and a small "pool" of ice at the end. Check out: https://my.spokanecity.org/riverfrontpark/attractions/skate-ribbon/?x_cw_context_provider=safari
They helped to create moments by having fire pits stationed inside and outside the ribbon. There were heaters outside so you could stand and watch the skaters go by - all creating beautfiul memories of skating.
The kid's Christmas break starts the week before Christmas, where most of the local schools don't start break until a couple of days before Christmas. I love having the "week of anticipation" as I like to call it. Anticipating Christmas is almost more delightful than Christmas Day itself - almost.
Balin was able to take that week and the week after Christmas off and I have to say it became the Weeks of Moments.
We started the week with heading up to the Mountain to spend 4 days skiing, just the 4 of us. We hit some pretty sweet powder and some pretty nasty cold weather. (9 degrees is ALOT colder than 23 and I'd prefer 83) . One of the kids' presents was the series LOST which we would watch after dinner. It was fun to have something we all enjoyed watching together. We played board games, went to see Star Wars and just in general had a lovely couple of days. (Did I mention no one had their phones and there's no Wifi there?)
Wednesday we headed down from the Mountain so that Perrin could go to the Cookie Decorating party her teacher was hosting. Balin headed off to the office for a couple of hours and Sam blissfully got online and played games with his friends.
One of the moments that happened was Sam and I got to grab a half day of skiing together. It was really fun to say, "I'll follow you" as he zoomed down the mountain. He's gotten really fast and has surprisingly good form. It was delightful. Not every day a 13 year boy wants to hang out with his mom.
When we were down in the Valley, we picked up Natalie and Sam Shubin to bring back up to the condo with us for a few days. Last spring I encouraged Shubin's mom to pick up a season pass for him and we'd bring him up to the mountain whenever we went. I was a little nervous as the boys can be really competitive and honestly S.Strickler can be sullen and not fun to be around. To my delight and surprise they got a long so well. They played card games just the two of them, skiied/snowboarded, read books, played board games with the family and went sledding all with joy and laughter. What a beautiful series of Moments.
We also got the opportunity to bring up one of Sam's classmates who needed a place to stay during the holidays due to some family duress. Natalie was a great sport as she had never skiied before and honestly wasn't really interested in pursuing the sport. Not wanting her to stay inside all day, we signed her up for two days of lessons through which she persevered and actually became pretty good.
The Moment with Natalie was when we got home and I gave her her Christmas present of a gift card at Barnes and Noble while we were at the store, she literally bounced and clapped her hands all the way through the store. Nothing like delighting the heart of a child.
Another Moment was Balin's introduction of the schecdule. He decided that life would go much better if everyone had some idea of what was going to happen with our days of staycation. Every morning he would write down the tenetive plans for the day with a coorespoinding time schedule. It was amazing how it made what would normally be a battle with the kids, a non-issue. Like walking the dogs. The kids knew that we were going to take a family walk with the dogs from 2:00-2:30 followed by an hour of free time, they were willing and dare I say, eager, to participate. It was the making of a continual Moment.
Sometimes the Moments are made by just having the space and downtime to be. Over the break we had so many opportunities to just read a book, play a game, take a walk, take a nap...it was like we were released from the tyranny of time. And I loved it.