Rain Baby
You have 30 minutes... ready, set, go!
Hello Friends,
I’m coming to you on a sunny day in between another round of atmospheric rivers. I just got home after a long run, and I have thirty minutes left with the babysitter…
And this is where my brain short circuits and I forget what words are, and I type and delete sentence after sentence. I procrastinate by switching to one of the 28 tabs (yes, I counted) that are open on my computer. They are nice tabs. They don’t have a blank page and a blinking cursor mocking me.
Shit! 23 minutes left…
On my run, I was flooded with brilliant insight and ideas, but I guess they got washed out in the shower or something because they are only partial fragments now.
I thought about how Tatum has experienced more rain in her two months of life than Aiden saw in his nearly two years. I thought I’d call her my “rain baby.”
I thought I might write about how while I was running out of the park, someone caught me blowing a snot rocket and how I was super embarrassed and hoped we could both pretend it never happened, but then she said, “I saw that!” and I thought she was being funny, but when I got closer and said, “I’m sorry,” and she responded with, “Yeah,” and I realized she was expecting aggression. I started to think about how often we go into situations these days expecting a fight, maybe even looking for one. It’s sad to think how often we have our snark at the ready.
CRAP! 10 minutes!
I thought about how happy I’ve been this week now that I’m running again, even the nearly five miles I ran in the rain on Wednesday.
7 minutes!
I thought about how I needed to reach out to Aiden’s oncologist and tell her that Aiden is a big brother now, and then I got sad, and I wonder if Tatum misses him now that she is on this side of the here and hereafter, or maybe it’s called the “herebefore"?”
4 minutes!
I thought about what I was going to have for lunch. I met a friend for breakfast this morning, and the leftover breakfast burrito in the refrigerator at home was calling me, but I was still 3 miles from my car. Niki Minaj distracted my growling tummy for a bit while I ran up Carrillo hill.
2 minutes!
Right now, I’m laughing because this newsletter is reminding me of when the older kids were toddlers, and I had to give them a five-minute warning when we left the park. I’d count them down… Five minutes, then two minutes, then one minute… Or maybe it’s more like when they were in trouble, “I’m going to count to three. One, twooooo, two and a half, two and three quarters…”
Eeek! 30 seconds!
I’m thinking about how productive I can be in thirty minutes and how they say we often vastly overestimate what we can get done in a day and wildly underestimate what we can get done in a year… but a mom with a babysitter can change her world in thirty minutes (I added that last part)
Done!
This is where I am today. Thank you for listening.
xoxo,
Emily
Your Journal Prompt for Today
Post your response in the comments below or tag me on Instagram @emilykathleenwrites
Links to Ponder
How sweet it is to be a cloud… (The Daily Respite)
Loved this conversation with Zach Braff (The Rich Roll Podcast)
A conversation with tweens. Spoiler alert: They want us to listen. (The New York Times)
A nuanced conversation about “fat” as a neutral descriptor, the same as tall or short, as told by actual fat people (Burnt Toast)
A runner-mother and her son (Run to Write)
Kids will humble you! (Mr. Williams)
If you only have time for one thing… Check out my rain baby. I know I’m biased, but she really is the cutest thing. (Emily Kathleen Writes)
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