Posted on by Jessica Dofflemyer

Food for Thought When You’re Stuck in Your Head

I’m driving Jeb to school.  He has a second-grade spelling test this morning.  Though I doubt he’s all that nervous about it, he suddenly strikes up a conversation about fear and the human cerebrum.

He asks from the back seat, “Do you know what side of my brain gets scared?”

Ok.  This is random.  I’m curious.  “No, what side?”

courtesy of lovelornpoets

“The left.  Do you know why?”

“No.  Tell me.”

“Because fear wouldn’t come from the right side.  It would only be on the left…Get it?  Because right, is right.”

“Ahh, yeah.  I get it.  Ok.”

“So what side of your brain does fear come from, Mom?”

“I don’t know.  I guess I’d have to take a minute to notice inside my brain and see.”

“I don’t have to look inside my brain, I already know.  Fear’s on the left.”

Left.  Right.  Wrong.

Here’s to knowing what’s true and having the wisdom to choose, despite the firing synapses of our grey matter.

Posted on by Jessica Dofflemyer

Book Order Blues

Jeb wakes before the sun and emerges from his bedroom clutching the latest Scholastic book order catalogue.  He wants to sit together and peruse his top picks.

Ever-supportive of nurturing the love of reading, I acquiesce and surrender my writing hour to a different kind of literary exercise.  Flipping past Amelia Bedelia and Captain Underpants, my son goes straight to the featured Lego section.  I wish that I could craft this post to reflect my pride in his earnest bookwormishness.  But alas, that would be misleading.

In reality, his aim was in another vein.  His index finger pointing to the highlighted Lego DS video game, available for only $20.

Bypassing nearly all things book, my morning writing was being thwarted by an electronic game and the ensuing push and pull of “please, mom, please, this is the only thing I want to buy.”

Ugh.

No poetry to post this morning or any kind of inspired perspective.  The Scholastic book order form has been temporarily shelved, though I’m not budging on my refusal to purchase video games through the school’s book catalogue.

Come on, Scholastic!  Give a mom a break.

Well, I’m laughing, actually.  I guess they gave me a post.  Even if it is completely mundane.

Posted on by Jessica Dofflemyer

After Snooze

Just as my fingers move to type some sort of expression on the beauty of ‘switching channels’, Jeb’s alarm sounds with an early morning wake-up.

He sleeps, undisturbed.  I hit snooze.

I was coming here to say something about how life offers opportunities.  Maybe it’s a music concert,  or a hike through the woods.  A late-night conversation with a friend.  Sometimes these experiences expand us.  All those petty worries, they dissolve in the wake of something greater.  Some broadened perspective.  Something that feels alive and vibrant.  Something more tangible than thought.

I know snooze won’t last much longer in this morning’s writing hour.  I’m going to have to bring my expanded self to a breakfast session of study time.  Jeb’s got a math test today.  I’ve got a long work day ahead.

I get to wink at the mundane details.  Maybe even laugh when they try to fit me in their boxes.  I’ll let expansion carry me.

Smile at that alarm…there it is.  It chimes awakening.

courtesy of Sean McGrath