How Long Will You Teeter On The Precipice?

The children finished school last week but camp doesn’t start for another ten days. They sit downstairs in front of a television while their father works hard to meet another deadline.

And in the midst of what feels like semi-organized chaos I take a ten minute break to clear my head so that when I review the piece I just wrote I can feel confident that it tells a story, answers questions and includes a call-to-action.

Been up and down the stairs fifteen times or more this last hour trying to make sure they are taken care of but mostly to assuage the guilty conscience of having the tube help keep them entertained.

There will be books. There will be games and there will be time to walk the dog included in the day but there are the proverbial bills to pay and work to be done so said bills are taken care of and that means I must make more compromises.

How Long Will You Teeter On The Precipice?

We have been a family in transition for a while now.  Been through many changes but both heart and head are convinced that the merry-go-round of life has us on an upswing now.

Still there are changes to come and things to be done to keep the horse from flying off of the track so I can’t help but feel like I am standing on the top of a mountain.

Twilight has come and that veil between night and day hasn’t been removed yet so my vision is obscured by what I see and what I think I see.

Am I standing on the precipice of a cliff or the top of a hill?

Can I step forward into the gloaming and remain confident that my feet will touch earth or will teetering on the precipice lead to a plummet over the side?

I’d rather not reach the bottom by bouncing down the side of the mountain. The last time I did that I managed to bang into every sharp outcropping or rough plant along the way.

The upside was that it didn’t kill or permanently injure me but it did bruise the hell out of me and I think I have a few scabs, scars and scrapes that haven’t healed the way I would like them to.

What Stories Will You Tell?

Sometimes I think about how different my childhood was from my children and I wonder if I am doing as well for them as my parents did for me.

I think about the adventures my sisters and I had, the places we visited and the things we did and find myself frustrated because it feels like I haven’t given my children as much.

But then again they have been to places and done things I never did as a child. They are happy and well adjusted and what they know is normal for them.

That is something we sometimes talk about, how normal can be so subjective.

I think about a night driving through the desert on my way from Los Angeles to Texas and remember the glory of driving under a star lit sky and how after hours of driving I entertained myself by thinking about whether I would rather be in Game of Thrones or Middle Earth.

It was just the car and I so with no companion I had no one to ask about their preference and cannot ask the children about what stories they will tell from that ride.

An Epic Adventure

That moment is when I knew I was on an epic adventure and though it wasn’t in Westeros or Middle Earth it merited use of the word.

Everyone should have the opportunity to engage in a truly epic adventure and not something that destroys the definition and use of the word.

Speaking of which last night’s episode of Game Of Thrones was outstanding. There were too many moments worth mentioning but what a ride it was.

“Night gathers,
and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death.
I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory.
I shall live and die at my post.
I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men.
I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.” Game Of Thrones