Dino Bones

Maybe I chose a poor time to write, but in many ways this morning is very telling of my life these days. Elena is minutes from leaving to go set up at an event down the street and Salem is still sleeping. It's peaceful among the anticipation of today's event. 

Sometimes Salem and I play made up games together, and I wanted to remember them. One of them is called Speed Juice, and it's probably the funniest of all. We found a little red car that says the words 'Speed Juice' on the side, either a Hotwheels or Matchbox toy. Salem thinks it's a riot when I pretend to take a sip from the car and suddenly feel a burst of energy (not unlike a Red Bull commercial from forever ago). "Speed Juice! Yyyeeeaaahhhh!". 

His favorite game is probably Dino Bones in any form. He loves dinosaurs, my gosh does he ever. You can just say the word dinosaur and his face will light up. The love for dinosaurs is something that seems to lead to other interests as well, and I'm constantly on the lookout for what's next. We bury toy bones in the sand box and he likes to excavate them with a little shovel and sifter. It's painfully cute. On long beach walks near our property up north, Salem likes to find strange looking pieces of driftwood and collect them as leg bones and rib cages from a t-rex or triceratops. 

I love the way he loves his triceratops. It was one of the first dinosaur words he could say, he just called him 'tops'. Uncle Ari gave him a really cool triceratops recently, and I think that makes about 15 total for his collection. 

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What have I been up to? We just got back from a few weeks road trip and suddenly I'm pumped to get back on the road again. I have a pretty laidback summer presenting itself for me, one that should give me plenty of time to spend with my number one dude. I deleted my Facebook, or at least erased the app. An old friend upset me and I don't want to make myself available to being upset by old friends over issues on the news. Heck, an election is due for next year. I'll be better off without it.

South Dakota.. we're going west again. I once visited a place called Medicine Wheel with my wife. She was my girlfriend at that time, yet it was a burgeoning love. Somehow visiting this place made tons of sense to both of us and our path together. It was one of many magical places we've seen together which have always shown us that we're part of a greater path.

Just like that. The famous words, "I'm not not starting to panic" are uttered by my wife, and time is growing closer to her deadline. She's supposed to be at the event prepared and set up in twenty minutes, but she hasn't even left the house yet. I love it. It's beautiful chaos that she wears so well. My won will start rustling around in his bed soon. That's my time to sneak in a morning cuddle. I don't care if those take all morning. 

Frederic

I'm at an Air Bnb right now in Frederic, Michigan watching a massive fly buzz around the light of my laptop. My family is asleep in this one room cabin rental, and after a few minutes of playing a pixelated remake of FFV on my phone for a few minutes I suddenly felt like writing. 

This seems like one of those places where I'll wake up either in the middle of the night or early in the morning and have no idea where I am. This trip through Michigan is taking us to lots of beautiful places, but out focus has mainly been on Salem who had no problem showing us how much energy he had stored up by riding in the car for four hours today. Now its that peaceful moment when he's asleep and I can think for a second or two, but writing that makes me feel weird. I guess it's one of those things that only parents can understand. Sometimes I need to be alone for a while to process, but that's not a luxury I can always indulge. Yet, in this moment I'm realize that everything is in a pretty magical balance.

I made a list about a week ago, you should too. I wrote down everything that I was worried about, and I included the little things. I only wrote one or two words for each item and it came to fill and entire sheet of lined yellow paper one time over, although in a thin column. Over the last week I've drawn a line through bout half of them, and honestly that's more than I really expected. I wrote things like, 'Salem' and 'Elena' on my list, and I'd never stop worrying about them. It made me feel really good to see that I don't have to worry as much as I thought. Perhaps that's because most of the things I worry about are needlessly fretted over, but I spend much of my waking day concerned that my son could run off in any direction at any time. He's fast, yo.

Okay, back to FFV.

Airship Challenge

The floor was lava, but now we're on an airship. It's windy and you can almost feel the engines of our airship whirring as we take off over a beautiful cliffside, one that overlooks sparkling blue water and white fluffy clouds on a perfect sunny day. 

For a while I forget that I'm at the playground. The nearby Pointe-Aux-Barques lighthouse is whimsically welcomed into the scenery and it further proves to my son's imagination that we are in an air fortress somewhere near the edge of the sky. I have this funny little thought to entertain that airships must be quite cold and windy all the time, even on short voyages. 

We take off and land in various locations while pausing only to fly our gliders (kites) through the gusty winds over Lake Huron. At some point I look to my wife and say that this is such a perfect day, and somewhere in that factuality we both came to the same conclusion that it's time for us to pack the van and head out west. There is much more to this story..

Medicine Wheel.

Magic Bug

When I was a child, I had an imaginary friend named Magic Bug. In my mind he looked strikingly similar to the Cheerio's bee, but for whatever reason only I could see him. We used to make soup together.

My grandparents had a decently sized bay window in their living room where I would sit watching little dust particles dance in the sunlight, the ones that only little kids can see. I used to gather them and make soup, for whatever reason (I was like four years old), but I needed a helper. That's where Magic Bug came in.

My imaginary friend came on long road trips with me. Back when my feet couldn't reach all the way, Magic Bug would help me make our cosmic soup on the floor of the car in the backseat. I remember the beams of light shining through the window when the sun was setting. It was always full of fairy dust, one of the key ingredients in our soup. One of the other main ingredients was rainwater, but we didn't get to make that soup during every car ride. However, when we did, the trick was to catch droplets of rain gathering on the window with your hand (reaching out and pretending, not actually touching the window) before the windshield wiper blades take them away and push them into oblivion. Sometimes they changed colors when we passed under traffic lights, red and green, and from the right angle you can even see the reflections of brake lights.

Mom and Dad are driving in the front and I'm watching the light make funny looking shapes around the interior of the car. I'm not alone. I have my friend Magic Bug and tonight we are making soup.

I also had a bike named Salad, but that's a different story.

Module 9

There is quite a bit that I should be doing right now. The house is dirty and we're going up north soon. The garage is dirty and my friends are coming over tonight. I have a lot of end of the term work to do at school, but it's fine. I just felt like writing. 

I'm onto something, I know that much is true. As I write this, I begin to wonder if that 'something' is a great adventure coming soon. I'm starting to see those opportunities arise, and once again I'm hearing that whisper in my ear that begs me to wander off to faraway places. It's familiar, catlike, temporary if you're not attentive.

Sometimes I find myself drifting into memories of the past. I was really hoping that wasn't something I would indulge myself in until I was much older, but I've had a lot of experiences just as anyone else has. They replay themselves to me sometimes, and it's tempting to miss those days. I don't though. Truly. I'm just starting to realize that I must see the world all over again through my son's eyes, and I don't want to miss a thing.

Where are we going next? Let's start up in the thumb of Michigan where we own a small property in a town called Port Hope. We love that place. Salem is going up to stay with Grandma and watch a parade of trucks Saturday morning, and we should be up there by evening or the next morning. That's a good start. Maybe we'll hit mid-Michigan followed by the north for a while and afterwards we can visit some friends on the way back to our hometown. Writing this out really brings the simplicity of my life these days to the surface, but I love it. I'm actually incredibly excited to spend some time on the road with my family and I even have a plan to take Salem up to Brad and Jolie's place alone next month. That's going to be a wonderful experience.

This is what I want, and it makes sense to me upon this new chapter of life. It's crazy to say, but it's better than wandering Madagascar or backpacking in the Middle East. I'm cosmically connected to a brand new adventurer and my own travels don't even appeal to me should he not be included. I love it. I'm so absolutely happy that it scares me sometimes. For now, I'm living a life of attendance and gratitude. I can only wonder if someday I'll be able to show Salem the worlds of our neighboring countries near and far. I'd sure love to.