Write about appreciation. Not just appreciating any old thing, but about appreciating the people in your life. Imagine what it would be like to go through tomorrow without them.
This evening I was driving into town along dark roads, tightened by a serious case of forever road construction, to pick up my daughter at school. We hadn’t been sure when she would be done with her practice, so we had waited for her call telling us she would be hanging out in the parking lot of the school. So as I drove I thought for just a moment what I would do if I arrived and she wasn’t there. I wasn’t really worried as I knew she was waiting with friends who lived close by the school, but all the same, for a moment I thought about her and how much I do appreciate her giggly hello, the way she jumps into the passenger seat as though we were off to some wild, long-awaited adventure, and the habitual slamming of the door, eliciting my usual rebuke about killing our old car. My daughter has a habit of starting off her tales of the day with, “Guess what?” I can never guess, but I usually supply her with some sort of outrageous, impossible event: giant ants carried off Coach Fisher or Mindy has dyed her hair florescent pink, again, by accident. She gives me her usual rolled eye glance, slowly shaking head of exasperation, followed by the true life events that colored her evening. Yes, I want tomorrow to contain the giggle, the bounce, slam, “Guess what?, rolling eyes, shaking head and a new set of teenage angst stories, and the day after, too. I would appreciate that.
