Thursday, March 20, 2008

Play

Yesterday was an eighteen-hour day of editing. Today looks to be the same. Five hours of sleep; add it all up and you get - twenty-three hours. I took the leftover hour in the evening to play.

We all walked down to the park where I had a blast pretending to ride the slide into outer space with Silvi. She's smack dab in the middle of her "Look at me, look at me" stage, wanting the world to see her splash through ice-laden puddles or swing - by herself - on the big people's swings.

I would be lost without that little girl, continually pulling me out of the "grown-up" world of deadlines and meetings and important things. "Daddy, you're it!" "Daddy, come play in my room."

For all the work I did this week, the memory that stays with me most is not found on a computer screen, but on a playground, with my little, blond-haired girl dodging stars atop a wooden jungle gym.

6 comments:

Kim Ayres said...

Well it's like that old idea that give it 20 years and will you look back and wish you spent more time in the office or with your kids?

Jeffrey Goble said...

And these are the kinds of things that you can't explain to someone who does not know who asks,
"What's it like to have kids?"
Joy.

terri said...

sorry i've been away lately.

this sounds so good...i'm glad that little girl got you to play for a bit. hope you're finding more time for this even in the middle of a crazy life and all its demands.

Tom said...

kim: Oh, I thought you said, "spent more time watching The Office." I was going to have to think about that one.. kidding, of course.

elbog: "Pleasure spiked with pain," to quote the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Terri: Silvi always has that way of making me laugh.. and pull my hair out. :)

bella said...

I feel the same way.
It pulls me outside of myself, my constant mind chatter, my ideas of what is "important".
and there is something heartbreakingly honest and raw about that voice that with abandon can squeal LOOK AT ME.

Tom said...

Isabel: And with Silvi, I can't help but looking at her... she's got a spell on her old man. :)