I sit sipping on my cup of hot tea and lose myself in the herbal blend. Slowly and methodically weaving their magic herbs as I am spellbound imagining of being on a hot air balloon ride. The adrenaline is surging as I approach the basket. A portion of myself wants to resist but I am overcome with curiosity and fascination. Instantly, I climbed onboard and it is nothing shy of surreal. The bursts of air are fueling the balloon to lift the basket. Each time the air is emitted it is such a surge of power. The noisy force brings my senses to attention; causing my hands to sweat and tremble as my legs get weak in the knee. I am instantly overcome and quaked to my very core. My eyes are tightly closed as my hands are clinched to the basket. I sense that we have left the ground. I open my eyes and my pursed mouth relaxes to that of a satisfied smile. One with pride that I have met this raging fear of mine. The second for allowing myself to behold this phenomenal beauty. I have now stepped out breathing deep and wide; full of longing to explore the great unknown. I am paralyzed with the fear of heights but as I look around and gazed out upon the beauty I am captivated. Wonderment floods my Soul and I have succumbed from the fear and bask in the majestic marvels of beauty that surround me. It is just before the Sun begins to dawn. All of Nature is starting to rouse. By now the bursts of hot air that erupt are becoming soothing. Somehow now I relax and invite them as I am captivated by the mysterious aerostation in action. The wonder above it all is in order for that basket or gondola to be lifted and carried high up in the horizons the air must be extremely hot. Hot like my cup of tea or hotter. So hot in fact that a burner is used to heat the air. Moreover, it is unleashing the buoyancy to cause us to lift high above the Houses. Up higher now above the tree tops. I look around and marvel at all I savored and deliciously drank in. The skyline as the sun begins to rise. The glorious colors being painted there before me are amplified with intensified hues from this vantage point. For very few moments in my life, I have no words. It is as if too I was awakened and never more alive.
My mind drifts to a couple weeks ago and my Daughter and I were honoring and in our best efforts celebrating her little sister's birth. We sat on the floor with her photo's all around us. As if the photographs were telling their stories we would embrace their weightiness. The force of love and the passion of life surged within us as if shot into us with a needle. We rummaged through the drawers that safely keep her things. Liken to an old antiqued chest that was kept up in an attic. I watched my Daughter as she is now older and able to grasp it all. The moments where her eyes were wide with wonder and the next were filled with tears. She then took one of her little sister's blankets and pillows and we were off to watch home movies. As if the steam of that hot air balloon erupted; I knew just what movie we would watch. It was my older Daughter's birth and as my now teenager gasped, she said, "Mom this is so Trippy." I sensed the glorious Wonderment of Life was ignited as she watched me pregnant realizing it was Her inside of me. The moments that she watched will be seared to my heart forever. It was the first time she grasped the unmeasurable gift of Life. Her Life. And even more, her gift of life to me. The gift of fifty six days of Claire's Life was illuminated in a poignant way as in a key that unlocked the gates to unleash that fervency within now my Older Daughter. How we live and love Today will effect our Days and Years from now. Moreover, those all around us. My younger Daughter has taught us both that. It was within that moment that mantel was passed on. We were soaring high as if she were in that hot air balloon ride with me.
I close my eyes and imagine myself again upon that hot air balloon. I relish in how perfectly timed as Life so often is. Since the first of this Month, I have been doing Rachel Hollis' #last90dayschallenge alongside my Daughter and some friends. There are 5 to Thrive things to do each day. Number five just may be my favorite. Its the hot air that lifts my Heart and Soul. It has you write down ten things you are grateful for. I wrote a couple of years back on social media; Day one of 365 and so on. Days became Chapters. I am a huge resolutions girl. Always have been. You see, I was lucky enough to identify with who I was at a very young age. I see the same in my Daughter. But now at my age I can see how life can often times have me doubting most of all myself! Before I know it, me and all of my dreams, resolutions and goals that I had held so tightly to before were now just blowing in the wind. But this elates me, it delights me with a new found excitement. How brilliant?! We often start off strong with anything or everything in Life, but lose that stamina or drive midway. I have my hand up for certain. My same best friend's husband always says it is not how you start but how you finish. So let's finish out this year, strong together.
One of mine and my Daughter's favorite movies and soundtracks has been Mama Mia. Since she was just three years old. She and I have danced and twirled to these tunes. We have been to Broadway and in our pjs snuggled before our television. It never grows old. Ten years later we had a date night. We went out to eat our favorite, Sushi. Then we went to see the sequel, Mama Mia here we go again. We laughed, we sang and we cried. What I only realized this past weekend as we now purchased the sequel and watched them both back to back why this is so poignant. It was one of my top ten things I will ever be grateful for. The movie started with the Daughter singing, "I have a Dream."
My Daughter's Insta Post after the Movie
Be unapologetic about that which sets your soul on fire. Live with intention, purposefully. Be who you were created to be in ALL of it's entirety. You will not appeal to everyone perhaps, but what a gift to those who you were designed for. Oprah Winfrey is quoted and I wholeheartedly agree, "The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your Dreams." This is the Wonderment of Life. xo
