Oh, Joy Jamal's Birthday
I fretted for days over where I would take newly-nine year-old Jamal to celebrate his birthday.
What would we do and where would we dine?
It would be the first time that Jamal and I would spend a day together, just the two of us.
I figured the little one would want a grownup meal in a nice restaurant.
Would we do Mexican, Italian, Pizza or even Chinese?
I need not have worried. After a 3-D dinosaur film at
the Museum of Natural History, all he wanted was a hamburger, fries and a lemonade from a food kiosk on the National Mall. That was his big adventure and fun break from his mom's healthy eating regimen.
We sat down on the grass and shared his burger and fries. It was then that I got it. The kid didn't care where we ate or what fun things Auntie J would have lined up for him to do. It was enough that we were just hanging out together.
On that day, I didn't have a schedule to meet or anything to cross off of my "to do" list. I gave myself permission to have a Dove ice cream bar and chatted with Jamal about everything and nothing. He gave me the gift of total relaxation and the kind of joy I had forgotten how to conjure at will.
I gave him a new junior basketball.
What would we do and where would we dine?
It would be the first time that Jamal and I would spend a day together, just the two of us.
I figured the little one would want a grownup meal in a nice restaurant.
Would we do Mexican, Italian, Pizza or even Chinese?
I need not have worried. After a 3-D dinosaur film at
the Museum of Natural History, all he wanted was a hamburger, fries and a lemonade from a food kiosk on the National Mall. That was his big adventure and fun break from his mom's healthy eating regimen.
We sat down on the grass and shared his burger and fries. It was then that I got it. The kid didn't care where we ate or what fun things Auntie J would have lined up for him to do. It was enough that we were just hanging out together.
On that day, I didn't have a schedule to meet or anything to cross off of my "to do" list. I gave myself permission to have a Dove ice cream bar and chatted with Jamal about everything and nothing. He gave me the gift of total relaxation and the kind of joy I had forgotten how to conjure at will.
I gave him a new junior basketball.
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