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Forever in Blue

   

Today, I was dressed all in blue; yesterday, I was dressed all in blue, and tomorrow, I will be dressed all in blue.  Dressing in blue is not necessarily a normal daily occurrence for me, but anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that blue is my favorite color. Not because I graduated from Casey County High School (school colors are red, white and Columbia blue), not because my first professional job was teaching at Jessamine County High School (school colors were red, white and Columbia blue), not because I'm a graduate of the University of Kentucky (home of the Big Blue) and not because I have worked the past 28 years in Fort Thomas (home of the Bluebirds) but because blue is the color of my eyes...a trait I inherited from my parents. And even though having blue eyes is a recessive gene (I think I remember that correctly from biology class 100 years ago), I have never felt "recessive".

Some say people who wear blue are analytical and take a practical approach to life. Some say people who love blue are self-reliant and accept responsibility easily.

I want to think that I am all those things....not because I love the color blue but because those are traits of the women I have admired, the women I have longed to emulate, and...the women from whom I inherited....my blue eyes. So, yes, I'll forever love the color blue, but I will love those women even more.

Thanks for reading my very first post!  Keep following me as I "talk out loud"!

Where are we going today, momma?

I am the child of a mother who was a working parent, an educator. Like mother, like daughter, I, too, became an educator and a working mother. My children, when little, were fortunate to attend a daycare very close to where I worked, owned by the parent of one of my students. Perfect situation for a working mother! Every day during the school year, I woke my two children, dressed them and drove them to Kids-N-Cribs Daycare....every weekday from the time that my daughter was seven weeks old until my son was old enough to go to kindergarten....which was about eight or nine years.

My son, the second child, was not as verbal as my daughter was early on, but once he found his voice, he used it. For almost a year, every weekday morning, Beau would ask me on the way to work, "Where are we going today, momma?" My response was the same every day. "Beau, we're going to school today." He was satisfied with the answer. The next morning, even though our routine was rarely ever changed, he would ask me..."Where are we going today, momma?" I would deliver the same response..."We're going to school today, Beau." He was satisfied with the answer.

Looking back, that memory makes me smile and cry at the same time. When I see his little face in my rear view mirror and the wonder in his eyes as he asked, "Where are we going today, momma?" I smile. To him, every day was an adventure.

I don't know why he asked that question every day. Maybe he thought one day I would say, "Beau, we're going to the zoo" or "Hey, instead of going to school today, we're going to Disneyworld". But, the point is that every day, he had hope, wonder and curiosity. Every day, to him, was a new opportunity, a chance to - maybe - do something different. His sense of wonder was never dampened, even when my answer was the same as the day before..."We're going to school today, Beau".

I've thought a lot about this memory lately and have wondered myself...Wouldn't life be more awesome if we never lost that sense of wonder that we have as children? Wouldn't each day be more special if we all stopped and considered how blessed we are to have been given the chance to construct our own paths? Even when our journey seems monotonous and routine, wouldn't considering "where are we going today" make that journey a little easier? I think so.