The weather is cool and clear. We had a lovely, lazy picnic lunch at the beach with friends. Since we were in the Marin Headlands north of the city anyway, I decided to try a drive my photography teacher told me about. Poor ol' Eli was sleepy and was soon to nap in the car, but when I saw the world spread out before us, I knew we had to partake.
We climbed to the top of a hill and looked out into the Pacific Ocean.
And we looked east, down at the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and San Francisco, but also at Berkeley and Oakland across the bay. In the distance, there was Mount Diablo.
Ten more minutes wasn't going to ruin a nap, right? So I sat down and pulled Eli into my lap. We sat there to watch the sailboats and tugboats and container ships. We watched a couple of planes and a helicopter. We watched birds dip and dive. But there were a million other details to see too.
We sat there and I soaked it up -- sun, wind, salt air, but also soft, warm boy. At three and a half, can Eli remember this day? Will he remember sitting up so high with the world spread beneath him and loving arms wrapped around him? When Eli goes off to preschool in the mornings, I kiss the palms of both of his hands so he'll have mama kisses with him all day. I wish somehow I could tear off a piece of today, fold it into a tiny square, and tuck it into his everlasting pocket where for the rest of his life he could pull it out anytime he feels too small (or too big), anytime he needs a vantage point to help find his way, anytime he needs to remember how very loved he is.
Val, this is one of the greatest blogs thus far. Now have I said that before?? :o) Can't help but believe you'll keep this ever so fresh in that precious mind of his. The pictures are so beautiful, can only imagine how it must appear in person! Thanks for sharing and taking us places we'll perhaps never see in person.
Posted by: Norma | 27 June 2012 at 12:42 PM
Aww! Thanks, Norma! It was very much from the heart.
Posted by: Valerie J. Frey | 27 June 2012 at 05:18 PM