Kee-Ya!

If the scribbled up mess that is my December calendar page is “the most wonderful time of the year” then May is rapidly becoming the second-most wonderful time of the year. Whew! At last it’s June and we’ve finally been released from the clutches of the classroom, the bus, the homework and are savoring the first day of summer. Really and truly, the three of them haven’t been able to decide what to do all day! I’m ready for some wide open calendar space and they’re ready to just run unscheduled. Together the three of them always find a way to fill the time.

As for May, there was Field Day … there were Graduation Parties … I helped run a Book Fair … and of course there were the last minute thises and thats that make finishing a school year so exciting for a kid. Squeeze in the big party, Mother’s Day, a karate tournament, the regular schedule and some work on our own Ready, Set, Relax program. Then shake it up with a couple of days away on a trip for just the two of us and what you have is a big mess of a calendar page! :)

In between scheduled events I was thinking about posting, lots of time to think about posting but no keys or pens or papers on which to jot anything down.

Mostly, though, I’ve been thinking again about the power of a shared meal … how I feel a difference inside myself when my family lets that power run out of us, skipping time at the table for coming and going as we’re hungry or watching a movie while we eat dinner.

I’ve been thinking a lot about power … it’s a word I’ve been hearing at karate often. “You know what you’re supposed to do,” I’ll be told about what I’m learning. “But you need more power.”

Well, how on Earth do I get that? My body is what it is … there’s no more power in it! Of course it would be disrespectful to say this out loud, but in my head I’m laughing away. Ya, right, a 37-year-old Couch Potato is going to generate pOWer. Then they set us to practicing with a focus here or a focus there … never an all inclusive task of putting more power into every single thing I do, but try this on your punch or that on your block. Just concentrate on that and see what happens.

And I find more power. Right there inside myself. Power I never knew I had.

And so it is with a shared meal. Try something a little different such as sitting at the table or turning off the TV, especially now that it is summer. If you have one of those lovely back yards with a nice table try eating out there with your kids. (An easy way to get no TV!) Focus on one little change and like my punches, you might find more power than you ever knew was at your fingertips.