Walk

We've been out of sync with 'normal' for almost a month now. No dining out, no playdates at the trampoline park or the zoo. No ninth birthday party plans. If we really focused on it, we would probably find ourselves feeling claustrophobic and stir-crazy, isolated and anxious... it's a slippery slope, but one I think we're all doing our best to balance on the edge of without falling right now.

Getting out to the grocery store almost feels like a treat these days, but once out there's a thick feeling of anxiety in the air that almost inspires an instinctual urge to run back home to safety.

I wonder how Audrey and Henry will remember this. Will it feel like one big long break? Will they think fondly of all the Lego challenges, baking, board games and movies? Will they remember feeling worried? Will they be able to get back into the swing of things when school begins again?

We took a walk at sunset the other night, kids in galoshes running ahead to splash in puddles, parents hanging back with heavy thoughts, watching. The light was golden and everything made them laugh- bugs in their hair, wet pant legs, Suka watching her own shadow.

For them, it was just another great evening in the middle of a week without days, the feeling of spring in the air and the promise that bed time would be a little later than usual.

I think that's how they'll remember this all. Not the anxiety, not the worry. The moment they occupy right here, right now.

It's how I want to remember it, too.