Dorcas writes at RevGals:
I have a little story to tell. Earlier this spring, my husband won three tickets to a concert presented by the symphony orchestra of a nearby city--featuring Mozart's Requiem. We debated for a few days about taking Trinity, our four-year old granddaughter, to such an adult event. In the end we decided to give it a try. After all, the tickets were free, so we didn't have a great deal to lose if we had to leave. (There she is in the picture, all dressed up and ready to go hear, "my Mozart!") You may wonder why we would consider taking a preschooler to the symphony, but this child loves Mozart and listens to a CD nearly every night at bedtime. Once I tried to sneak a CD of Bach in, and she cried, saying, "Grandma, that is NOT Mozart."
She was hopping with excitement, but we gave her lots of coaching, and when we arrived she gazed about with wonder at the lovely venue, and when the orchestra began to tune up she sat up straight and gazed, enraptured, with her mouth literally open. It was pure delight to watch her enjoying brand-new sights, sounds and surroundings.
This experience led me to remembering times of discovery, of new experiences. Some were my own experiences and some were remembered from my children, or those of others. Share with us today about five memorable moments of insight, discovery, awareness--from childhood or later, something you experienced or something you shared with someone else.
First, I LOVE this story and this picture of the amazing Trinity. So gorgeous.
1) the first year I lived in Denton and attended the annual Holiday Lighting on the Downtown Square
The most fun event ever, and the best part was when Brave Combo (our home grown, Grammy-winning, nuclear polka band) came out and started to play. Everyone, all ages, started jumping up and down, and I thought..."HEY! I can live HERE!" A little video for you:
2) In our old house I had a tomato bed (too much shade in the one now, unfortunately). Brandon came home one day and I out in the yard with a salt shaker eating tomatoes out of hand. I said, "Hey, come have a tomato!" "Oh, I don't like them," he said. Knowing he'd never had a REAL tomato, I finally convinced him to try one. He RAN off and got all his friends, saying, "you have to try this great thing my stepmom has!" :)
3) another Brandon discovery: he came home one day and saw me sewing something on my grandmother's Singer Featherweight machine:
Because my mother has the same machine, I grew up thinking that was what sewing machines looked like. But I don't think Brandon had ever seen any sewing maching before. He acted like I was churning butter or something. He was SO IMPRESSED. It was great.
4) Okay, this one is about Brandon too: I took him to my beach where I grew up one year. It's a private beach and there are friends and cousins all up and down it. He fell in with my cousin's boys and spent the day boogie boarding. That night he came and asked me if it was ok for him to go out on the beach with him. He was amazed that I just said, "Sure." Restrictions aren't really necessary there; there's no one on the beach that doesn't have a house there, and all kids do is run up and down in the moonlight (or its absence). It's what I did, and my mom before me, and her dad before her, etc....
5) The first time I went to a professional meeting of international educators and realized it was an actual field I could go into, and not just the part time job I had while in graduate school. It was an enormous relief, and my career fell into place from that.
