Wildflower Writes

My kids have tried, at various times, soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, tae kwon do, running, and gymnastics.  There are many reasons I think learning about sports is important in life. Sports provide the opportunity to learn new skills, to follow directions, to play by the rules, to work with teammates, and to develop confidence.  As they grow older, the skills continue to develop into life skills.  The child has to learn to balance competitiveness with sportsmanship, the glory for self with the good of the team, the pain of losing with the willingness to try harder.  I think that’s why so many people are drawn to sports teams and contests, whether they’ve ever thrown a ball or not.  Sports are a miniature representation of life itself, a concentrated, glorified version of the struggles ordinary people experience everyday. In soccer and basketball, you work toward a goal.  There are specific rules you have to play by, or you may get stalled a...

I’m not sure what kind of bird struggled through the air over a house on my route home from work.  With winds gusting up to 45 miles an hour, the poor creature seemed to have difficulty getting to where it wanted to go. I felt sympathetic.  Some days I feel like as hard as I try to fly straight, to get closer to my goals, it seems circumstances blow me off course.  It seems like it would make more sense for the bird to hunker down and wait out the storm.  Maybe it could find a cave or a cistern or somewhere to hide out.  That’s my temptation.  I get discouraged and want to hide, to bury myself beneath my bedsheets, to close out the world and lose myself in a world of cinematic drama or literary mystery and a chunk of chocolate.  It’s not necessarily bad to make time for oneself, or to escape once in awhile.  I’m afraid that if I didn’t have a family and a job, I might live in my bed.  I want to be a writer.  It’s the only thing...

I saw a movie today on the Lifetime channel because I was in one of THOSE kind of moods.  It was called “7 Things to Do Before I’m 30.”  I started thinking.  What does my “bucket list” look like?  What kinds of things would I like to experience in my lifetime.  I came up with 50: 1. Be an extra in a film. 2. Swim with a dolphin. 3. Learn how to take a compliment. 4. Get to know my neighbors. 5. Learn not to say yes when I really mean no. 6. Write a fan letter to my all-time favorite hero or heroine. 7. Write the novel I know I have inside me. 8. Shower in a waterfall. 9. Teach someone illiterate to read. 10. See a lunar eclipse. 11. Write my will. 12. Spend a whole day reading a great novel. 13. Learn to juggle with three balls. 14. Overcome my fear of failure. 15. Spend time making my house into exactly what I want. 16. Drive a convertible with the top down and music blaring. 17. Accept myself for who I am. 18. Go up in a h...

Sometimes, I hate being a mom.  I hate the early morning wake up call, the sinking feeling that something’s wrong, the helplessness at not being able to relieve the suffering, the indecision about what treatment to offer and whether or not to seek medical assistance, and the decisions about work, school, child care, and other planned activities. Something about parental love empowers you to do things that you wouldn’t normally be able to do when a child is sick.  Sleep becomes secondary to your child’s needs.  Cleaning up a variety of disgusting things is done in a matter-of-fact way, assuring the child everything is going to be fine.  Schedules and furniture are re-arranged without apology to provide for comfort and care. Sometimes I’m convinced that children are God’s character builders.  Nothing addresses selfishness, impatience, disorganization, laziness, dishonesty, pride, and lack of self-control better than becoming a parent.  For a mom, it start...

The summer after my freshman year in college, I worked for the university housekeeping department, assisting a full-time employee in cleaning dorms and apartments for special guests.  Pat like to talk, and she told me all about her family.  One afternoon she told me about the moment her son woke up after a coma induced by a drug overdose.  “I will never forgive you,” she told him.  She promised she would never forgive him for abusing his body that way, for the pain he caused her and the family when he nearly died.  According to her, he accepted her stance of unforgiveness, believing he deserved it. At the tender age of 19, I didn’t understand how someone who called herself a Christian could refuse to forgive anyone for any reason, especially her own son.  Although I still believe forgiveness is the best remedy for heart, soul, and relationships, I have a better understanding about how complicated relationships can be, especially when it comes to lif...

“That’s what makes life interesting,” he said. “I’m sick of interesting,” she said. I’m watching the new House episode, and I have to sympathize with a woman who continues to visit her catatonic best friend at the mental institute after a decade with no response. Anyone who would view my life from a distance would see the American dream.  I don’t deny I’ve been blessed beyond measure.  I just long for something to come easy. The second law of thermodynamics suggests that the quality of matter and energy deteriorates gradually over time. So, everything is always falling apart.  It’s completely frustrating to me, as a perfectionist, to know that everything we own, from vehicles, to homes, to clothes, is disintegrating into a lesser state of being.  Our bodies, as any middle-aged woman will tell you, are falling apart.  Even relationships require maintenance to remain at the same level, and greater effort to grow closer together.  Work skills become ...

We’ve all had megalomaniacal dreams of becoming a professional sports star, a movie actor, a rock star, or someone else rich and famous.  Is it the draw of international attention, a practically bottomless bank account, or the ability to do almost anything (legal) without consequences? Yet, we’ve seen the negative consequences fame and fortune can have on young people who are ill-prepared for it.  The media has documented every gory detail of celebrities’ drug addictions, failed romances, and legal difficulties.  I recently watched a documentary that gave me new respect for one of Hollywood’s own, because he stands out from the crowd.  I’ve always admired the work of Johnny Depp.  Outside of the fact that he is exquisitely good looking, he brings a depth to his characters that is incredible, considering the wide variety of characters he has played. What I learned about him that was really amazing to me was that he’s always followed his own brand of artis...