I've looked at clouds from both sides now...

There are times (see yesterday's post) that I get really caught up in the chaotic pace of our days and I lose site of the trees and only see the forest- a jumbled mass of twisted, intertwining branches and gnarled undergrowth beneath a canopy so thick that daylight hardly penetrates... Luckily, there are moments to reflect and remember the sweet things that blossomed from the chaos.

Today it was watching the clouds and trying to assess the weather and my chances of being able to mow (still in that "what's next mode") that reminded me of a part of yesterday that I was so glad to have had. On the hour long drive home from Kona Cyrus and I started talking about which movies were coming out that we would like to see. Our nearest theater is in Kona.

We started talking about the trailer for "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" and how it just seemed too far fetched to be enjoyable. That started a discussion about what makes for a good fantasy or sci fi movie and then the role of myth in cultures and how our willingness to entertain one theory over another is cultivated or influenced and how that shapes us as people and as societies. Naturally (?) this led to us talking about our favorite scenes from "The Office" and just what makes that show so d#*n funny! Then Cyrus reenacted about 75% of John Stuart's show from the night before that I had missed while I slept. Through all of this we kept our eyes on the sky - always on the lookout for good cloud formations. Our drive to Kona follows the coastline the entire way and the sky is vast and never, ever totally without clouds! And huge cumulus ones at that. In 16 years I have never seen a cloudless sky in Hawaii! (perhaps due to the fact that we are entirely surrounded by water? :) So it is rare that someone doesn't point out a cloud that looks like a cow wrestling a bearded lady, or Marge Simpson eating a dinasaur while riding a unicycle. Yesterday was no exception.

Our conversation faded and we focused only on cloud identification for a while until Cyrus told me that all cars have a rating based on a scale of 1-10. Cyrus likes ranking and competitions which is ones of the reasons he is so well suited to all things baseball.Cyrus has always had a competitive nature. When he was 3 I was folding laundry and asked my husband off-handedly how many blue shirts he had. Cyrus immediately ran to his dresser and came back to announce that he had 4! Billy had more than 4. Cyrus ran to his dresser again and came back asking how many red shirts did Billy have. Billy answered, "3". Cyrus frowned and turned back to his dresser with determination. A moment later he returned, "Dad, how many orange shirts do you have?" Billy had 1. Cyrus raised his arms in triumph, "YES!" The kid can and will find a way to turn just about anything into a competition. So this car rating system is a new one in a long line of ways that Cyrus looks at and compares and contrasts everyday objects and experiences. Several years ago I was fascinated to learn that we think about letters in a similar way. They each have a quality (thin, fat, fast, mean, dominant, shy, etc) that defines them, but that doesn't always have to do with their physical appearance. Anyway, back to cars, Cyrus demonstrated his system by telling me the rating of each car we passed. (My green 2001 Mazda MPV is a 4- by the way. Billy's 2007 4door Ford F150 is an 8). He told me most cars in our town are about a 2 with a smattering of 3-4's thrown in and an occasional 7-8. Just as we passed through Hawi town (don't blink!) We passed a small, dark Hummer. "OH YEAH! THAT'S WHAT I"M TALKIN' ABOUT!!" He yelled out as he pounded on the dashboard. I had to look around to make sure I hadn't suddenly been transported to a Nascar race or the room with the beer bong at a college frat party. "That is a 9+ !!" Why not a 10, you may ask? To be a 10 it would need to be full size, black, with tinted windows and way cooler rims. Any chrome would help too.

All this to say that I got to have a bit of one on one time with my very favorite 11 year olds and the cool part is that he thought it was great too! We enjoy each other's company. He is interesting and thoughtful and our conversations are never boring. He makes me laugh and blows me away and he even humors me when I sing...most of the time:). He has a keen awareness of himself and a compassionate understanding about the people around him. In the chaos of the past days there were lucky nuggets like this one. I'm just so glad I get to have them. I'm just so glad that I stopped spazzing out long enough to recognize how lucky I am!