I took it as a good sign that my first thought on waking up this morning . . . was about how we would do our next trip to New York. The fact that my focus was on a next trip meant that I was somehow presuming that we would make it through this one!
I've counseled people for years about the importance of living in the present and focusing on today. At the same time, thinking about the future reveals a great hope: you won't think about tomorrow . . . unless you believe that tomorrow will come.
I've counseled people for years about the importance of living in the present and focusing on today. At the same time, thinking about the future reveals a great hope: you won't think about tomorrow . . . unless you believe that tomorrow will come.
Somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania, we decided that we would drive all the way to New York yesterday. After all, the trip is only 860 miles. We knew that our arrival would be very late, but we all bought into the plan and we pressed on. We wondered if it might be a little calmer arriving in New York City in the dead of night. Surely then, there would be less traffic. And I suspect that there was less traffic. All the same, this is known as the city that never sleeps - and that was certainly true last night.
We knew that we were in for an adventure when we found ourselves in a line of several dozen cars - our line only one of the lines leading to twenty-four toll booths opening the way to the upper deck of the George Washington Bridge. And this was only the upper deck. Presumably, the very same traffic flow was happening just below us on the lower deck. From this entry point, cars pour into the the Bronx, the northernmost borough of the city.
We had to keep reminding ourselves that it was already after midnight. And we knew without any doubt that, as chaotic as things were then, things were a lot calmer than they would have been during an actual daytime rush hour.
Somehow - and the exact "how" of that somehow is still a mystery to us - somehow we navigated the traffic and construction and labyrinthine twists and turns of intersecting freeways. We arrived at our rather strange hotel and we slept the sleep of the just. Today we explore and we try to figure out Molly's new world.
High above the Poconos in eastern Pennsylvania yesterday we watched hang gliders soaring through the sky. Without saying anything out loud, I thought: "How can people do that? I would never do that in a million years." In the very same instant, Molly said out loud: "Oh, that would be so fun! I would give anything to do that!"
I used to be like that too.
But, even at my advanced age, I surprised myself when I woke up this morning. My first thought was not: "What have we done?!!" Instead, my first thought was: "How will we do this the next time?"
Today - we will deal with today. It's time to explore. But as we do that, tomorrow will be on our minds too.
We knew that we were in for an adventure when we found ourselves in a line of several dozen cars - our line only one of the lines leading to twenty-four toll booths opening the way to the upper deck of the George Washington Bridge. And this was only the upper deck. Presumably, the very same traffic flow was happening just below us on the lower deck. From this entry point, cars pour into the the Bronx, the northernmost borough of the city.
We had to keep reminding ourselves that it was already after midnight. And we knew without any doubt that, as chaotic as things were then, things were a lot calmer than they would have been during an actual daytime rush hour.
Somehow - and the exact "how" of that somehow is still a mystery to us - somehow we navigated the traffic and construction and labyrinthine twists and turns of intersecting freeways. We arrived at our rather strange hotel and we slept the sleep of the just. Today we explore and we try to figure out Molly's new world.
High above the Poconos in eastern Pennsylvania yesterday we watched hang gliders soaring through the sky. Without saying anything out loud, I thought: "How can people do that? I would never do that in a million years." In the very same instant, Molly said out loud: "Oh, that would be so fun! I would give anything to do that!"
I used to be like that too.
But, even at my advanced age, I surprised myself when I woke up this morning. My first thought was not: "What have we done?!!" Instead, my first thought was: "How will we do this the next time?"
Today - we will deal with today. It's time to explore. But as we do that, tomorrow will be on our minds too.