I am her play buddy but.
She’s got to keep an eye on me cuz I might check my phone for messages to which she says, “Pappy, we are playing right? You are helping me with my puzzles, right?”
Or, I might be taking her photograph.
Or daydreaming and looking out the library windows wondering if we’ll go to McDonalds or Islington Pizza for lunch.
She lives in the absolute moment and has an inner radar for my wanderings.
Is there a message I absolutely have to get? No.
Do I have to daydream looking out the window about where I’ll take her next? No.
Do I have to take her photograph?
Hell, yes. It’s my way of living in the moment, Miss Mary.
©Pat Coakley 2009
PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION
oh this makes me smile, hell yes, you bet
yea, tipota! Smile on. How you doing, girl? Your schedule was sounding pretty stressful at the start. Any time to meet up in Boston?
That is one funny shot.
Yep, it’s great to be a little kid without a care in the world…………
sucking the life out of everyone around them with their constant demands.
Oh, Razz, I think you need to spend some time with kids who hug your knees when they see you! I always leave my play date filled with more life than less. I’m sorry you’ve not had that experience, too!
early saturdays b4 class r best, any good shows coming up near ss (so we can get sticky buns) ? that open by 9 am or ten at the latest? or the mfa too, went to the mfa yesterday after class, the sound/video installation was a riot in the contemp gallery, and the glass bottles installation about ‘modernism’ right near the cafe’, you gotta see it, its gorgeous using the old ‘mirror infinity’ optical illusion
Maybe first Saturday in November? ICA has terrific exhibit which I’d love to see again and that’s just 10 minutes from sticky buns! Email if good time? I’m excited to meet the word wizard.
You can tell who’s in charge in this picture! Oh, to be able to live in the moment that way. Children have a lot to teach us about all that we’ve forgotten. You’re right about taking pictures as one way to be present.
Don, they are teachers, you are right, of all that we have forgotten. I love that you put it that way.
I know that look. I get it from both my girlfriend and my daughter. Since my computer has been broken for so long I have gotten that look a lot less over the past month.
Dave, you liveth! Welcome back.
That look! It has no filter. No need for propriety. She’s young enough not to edit her facial expressions ( that right returns sometime after 75 too, but the years in between are loaded with etiquette ).
I love the freedom expressed by children when they call you out on something. Keeps us honest and humbled.
Miss Mary may be miffed at photo ops now, but some years down the road, she’ll be so happy that Pappy was present.
Bon Bon, Miss Mary is the fourth of five and is in the stage where “play” and “reality” are two different countries. It’s jarring to have me check my phone and you know…I get why! One on one attention is the energy of play on some days.
Those eyes speak volumes. You can tell she’s sizing you up and impatient to get Pappy back to puzzling. Just wait until she graduates to 5000 piece puzzles…. HOURS of fun!!!
Epic, I am hopeless with those large puzzles so she’ll be helping me. Honestly, she is really really good at these things and does all twenty of them each time we go!