time well spent

How often do we get the chance to share the most real version of ourselves with our children? Not the wiping noses, bums, and tears. Not the goodnight kisses that carry us through the long nights. I'm talking about the passion, the individual passion we each have in our own hearts. {whatever that may be.} In some of us it looks like photography, cooking, designing, fortune 500's, or running a triathalon. These important bits of ourselves are unique to us, and they shine through the daily life, even if on somedays it feels they don't. These bits are pieces of the puzzle that make us real.

And when our children get to witness this? These unique pieces of us? Well, it makes their eyes sparkle.

This week my focus was firmly set on Friday. This is when I'll be attending the Mom 2.0 Exhibit reception at the Fotofest Art Gallery. However, yesterday a holiday provided my son and I with an entire day to spend together. I dreamed up a roadtrip to Houston, because I felt a very strong need to hold my son's hand in that very space I would stand this coming Friday night.

What I wanted most was to share this piece of my life with him. To put my feet next to his on the hardwood floor, to sit and laugh and relax with him by my side, seeing these bits of me all around us. All I really want is to give him a gift, an experience that just might tuck itself into the folds of his memory.

This was time well spent.

I feel like I carried the sisterhood there with me. All of you so far away. All of you in my heart, and those of you who I carry with me in my pocket. I carried this sisterhood in through the entrance, side by side with my own motherhood. As well as my own individual dream {for what it means to me.}

My intent was to share it with my son. But I came away wanting to share it with the sisterhood as well because the energy there was undeniably strong. And to think it all began with a fistful of maps and a tank full of gas.

Take a moment to view the slideshow of our journey to Houston that delivered us to this most amazing gallery. It's truly an amazing space of light and wood ... walls covered with beauty all familiar.

On Friday this room will come alive with voices. But yesterday, in all its silence, this exhibit was very much a living breathing creation.

.....

What is it you most want to share with your children? What inner passion in you is waiting to be revealed?

Comments

[Marcie]

I always want to share my passion for finding the joy and beauty in the everyday ordinary. I was lucky enough to do just that on a recent trip to Italy together:
http://www.marciescudderphotography.com/index.php?showimage=1051

[Elizabeth Harper]

I want my daughter to see my passion for words and for arranging them to suit my stories ... she already shares my passion for photography.

http://giftsofthejourney.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/tell-me-a-story-tuesdays-–-42-steps/

[June]

I've always shared my passions with my kids, whether it's photography, nature, or engineering, in small ways each day. I always feel wonderful when they do show signs of actually paying attention.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/junedel/4347874465/

[pam]

Lovely post. My youngest daughter and I are the ones that connect passionately. We cook, bake, take pictures, sew, knit, make jewelry, read...do it all together and apart.

[Katrina Kennedy]

THis is beautiful and so important.

I have three things I want to share with my son. I want him to understand completely. My love for my garden, my photography, and my yoga practice.

If I can do that, I will feel complete :)

[lucy]

Your photos of your journey with your son are amazing and just gorgeous.

Yesterday I combined my passion for photography and my love for my daughter in a cooperative photo project with friends and family. You can see it here:

http://eleganceofwords.blogspot.com/2010/02/day-48-of-365.html

[cdscott]

Great post. Love the exhibit space and seeing some of the images displayed. What a great day to spend with your son. Any day spent where your focus is enjoying life, rather than just living it, with you child is a gift for both of you! I'll think I'll go do that now with my two boys!

[kristin]

this is so powerful mere. thank you for carrying us in your hearts and sharing your view of it all iwth us in the slideshow. oh how i wish i could hold my kids hands and stand in that space with them. but knowing you did makes my heart smile. i am so so very happy you had this and shared it with river.
xoxo
thank you.

[melissa]

Great post! I love to share my photo albums and memories from growing up. Love the questions it brings up for discussion.

[traceyclark]

wow, wow, wow. thank you. so excited to see it again with you on Friday!

[JoLyn]

I love your idea of sharing the passions of our lives with our children. Yesterday I wrote about my son's passion -- and shared it through my passion, writing and photography. I was surprised at the connection it made between the two of us, but didn't put it all together until I read your post this morning. Thanks for putting it into words!

http://www.ayearofhappy.com/2010/02/a-is-for-artister.html

[mosey along]

Not only does the exhibit look beautiful, but the gallery itself is lovely. So wish I could come see it in person.

And my entire blog is basically a tribute to me trying to find that "time well spent" with my daughter, whatever form that takes - exploring her passions, sharing mine with her. But mostly it's the "Time" part. If I'm with her, fully engaged, then it's time well spent. (And I wrote a post named just that a few months ago, funnily. here it is:)
http://moseyalong.blogspot.com/2009/10/time-well-spent.html

[summer]

I had tears streaming down my face reading this and then following along your photos. I think part of that came from having followed your blog and this journey and feeling such a sense of joy for you that you are in this place, that you and your son had that day and these moments...the other part of it I think was that this is my passion. I long to share with my daughters this kind of experience exactly and there are days it never seems even close. Thank you for the reminder that the passion is in the everyday, not in the grand culmination of those days but in the days themselves.
absolutely beautiful.

[Cherie]

so cool!

[Secret Agent Mama - Mishelle Lane]

I want to share with my children that there is fun in life. To sing from the top of their lungs. To get up even when you fall down. To enjoy every moment. Good. Bad. Ugly. No matter what!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/secretagentmama/4346580707/in/set-72157623267535601/

[Kimberly Hosey (Arizona Writer)]

What a beautiful post and topic.

My son and I share nature. We look at the world, at the stars or a flock of doves or a rattlesnake or a cricket, and just cry with the joy of it sometimes. He's the only one with whom I completely share that.