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Two Kinds of Kindness

/ Marie / 5 Comments

The Kindness of Strangers

When my husband and I were planning our trip to Spain, part of what we discussed was the Spanish attitude towards breastfeeding, since our son was still in the nursing stage of babyhood. My husband lived in Spain for two years about 20 years ago. At that time, breastfeeding was associated with gypsy culture and was looked down on. I was a little nervous about nursing our baby in Spain, particularly because we would be out and in public as we toured the various museums and other attractions.

Aside from three older women glaring at me in Toledo, I didn’t have any negative experiences with nursing our baby in Spain. I did have two experiences where kindness was shown to me, and I am very grateful for that kindness.

Traveling with small children requires keeping track of many small details. The first Sunday that we were in Spain, we decided to go to church. Once we got there, I realized that I had forgotten to put my nursing cover in my bag. While I know there are many women who are comfortable nursing in public without a cover, I am not one of them. We were sitting down in church and my baby was hungry, and growing louder and louder in his desire to nurse. Another young mother loaned me her nursing cover so that I could feed my baby, diffusing what could have been a very stressful and difficult situation. My baby happily nursed under the borrowed cover until he was fully satisfied and happily drowsy. This small kindness from a kind stranger meant a lot to me.

Several days later we were shopping at Cortez Ingles when my little guy again needed to nurse. I had my cover with me this time, but was having a difficult time finding a comfortable place to nurse him. In American department stores the women’s restroom often has a section with comfortable seating that makes an excellent, quiet place to nurse a baby. So, I headed for the nearest restroom. By this time my baby was very fussy. There was no seating, and I didn’t want to sit on the floor, so I ended up sitting on the counter to nurse. A woman came into the bathroom and started speaking to me in Spanish. When I told her I didn’t understand her, that I didn’t speak Spanish, she switched to English. She told me she would find out if there was a more comfortable place for me to nurse my baby. She left the restroom and came back several minutes later. She had inquired with the staff at Cortez Ingles, and discovered that the third floor had a comfortable nursing area. While my little guy was almost finished at this time, I was touched by the kindness of this stranger, who went out of her way to make my situation more comfortable.

I had felt some anxiety about nursing our baby in Spain, but this actually brought me two wonderful reminders about the kindness of strangers when in a strange land. Spain is a country filled with kind people. And if you ever need to nurse at Cortez Ingles in Madrid, you know where to find the nursing room.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy:

Nostalgia in the Mundane

Madrid: A Princess Palace for Aeryn

Prose Poetry – Fingers

Surprising Memories

/ Marie / Leave a comment

Today I was cleaning out my guitar case, and I found a poem written on a loose leaf notebook paper. I have no memory of writing this, but it is in my handwriting. Rereading it, although some of the cadence is a little sticky, I really liked it. So here it is to share with you, revision free.

I’m sitting here and thinking of things
Decisions I’ve made in the past and how
Like clay they have molded me to be
The person you see just sitting here now

Where I have been and where I shall go
One is familiar, the other unknown
One shapes me and the other I shape
The future lies open, which path shall I take?

The past and the future surely meet
In the moment that I am sitting right here
The path I have trod and the path I shall take
Converge, and which way shall I veer?

The choices that I now shall make
Determine who I shall become
In a future moment when I shall
Be sitting there and thinking of things

When I’m sitting there and thinking of things
In the future made by the choice I make
I want to look at me and see
The person that I want to be

My First Haiku

/ Marie / 3 Comments

It has been years and years since I have written any kind of poetry at all. On a whim, I decided to try the Writing: 201 Poetry Course from Blogging University. I like challenges and I like trying new things. I always learn so much. This fits both those categories. So, here is my first poem, a haiku. It still needs a title.

Thundering droplets
Reflection of reasoning
Prismatic, then whole

When was the last time you were inspired to write poetry?

Our Christmas Tree Travel Log: A Christmas Tradition

/ Marie / 2 Comments

DSC_0196There are some family traditions that are created through a definitive decision, and intentionally implemented into family culture. There are other family traditions that grow organically through experiences and a multitude of smaller decisions made across a period of time. Our Christmas tree tradition is one of the latter. Here is our story.

When my husband and I were first married we lived in New York City. We were both students at the time, so money was pretty much not available in any kind of significant quantity. I love Christmas trees. Every year I would drag my poor husband through the icy cold of a windy, snowy New York winter to see the tree at Rockefeller Center with me. This particular Christmas, our first as a married couple, we went to Macy’s to look at the Christmas decorations. We went only to look at the Christmas decorations, with no intention to buy any.

On the top floor of the very large Macy’s at 34th Street and 8th Avenue, was a veritable Christmas wonderland with Santa’s workshop, fake snow, and a parade of Christmas trees full decorated with ornaments, angels and stars that you could purchase. One Christmas tree was fully decorated with symbols of New York, including the Statue of Liberty, taxi cabs, and……..pigeons. Yes, that’s right. Pigeons. It was NOT a tree that I liked very much, aside from reminding me of New York City, which I happen to love very much. My husband, however, decided that he really wanted one particular ornament on the tree. The pigeon. The gray pigeon with a bobbly head and I “heart” NY written on the side. I thought it was one of the most hideous things ever. But I loved my husband and so I consented to buying the pigeon, it being the only Christmas ornament we would purchase that year. But there was a deal involved. Next year, I would pick out an ornament to add to our collection.

That is how it started. The next year we had moved to another location, and decided it would be fitting to find a Christmas tree ornament that captured some of the essence of our new home.

DSC_0225We ended up with this little beauty. So instead of our Christmas tree tradition being a taking of turns to add a new ornament, each year we pick an ornament that symbolizes something momentous that happened that year. The general overall look of the tree also was developed to somewhat camouflage the pigeon, blue and silver with highlights of red. I still didn’t like the pigeon and somewhat resented having it on my beautiful Christmas tree.

DSC_0227When we had our first beautiful little baby, we of course had to have an ornament that celebrated her birth. Subsequently, each of our children have their own special ornament on the tree that they get to hang up each year. It celebrates the joyous occasion when they first joined our family. Each child knows which ornament is theirs and loves to find a special place for it on the tree.

In years that we are not moving or having a new baby join our family, we spend a lot more time traveling. We often go on a large international trip or to an exotic location. These family adventures are also all memorialized with their very own Christmas tree ornament. As we decorate our tree each year, each ornament rekindles memories of the various destinations and adventures we have experienced together. We have a lot of fun reminiscing and then discussing where we want to go for our next grand adventure. Here are some of our favorite travel ornaments.

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I have come to love this family tradition, which is a log of our traveling adventures and how we have grown as a family. I have even developed some fondness for the pigeon, which somehow started it all.

How do you remember your traveling adventures? What are some of your family’s Christmas traditions?

Tongue 1 and Tongue 2

/ Marie / 4 Comments

To amuse myself while I am sitting and nursing my baby, which is a substantial amount of time throughout the day, I’ve been reading some photography tutorials to learn how to take better pictures. I want to have the skills to take awesome photographs of my children, of my travels,  of pretty much everything. This post isn’t really about travel, except that I would like to take better travel photos. But, I think it is amusing, so please read on. Last week I came across a tutorial about how to take action photographs of dogs. I decided to give it a try. Here is one photo of our male dog.

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This is the kind of photo that the tutorial was discussing. It’s a fun photo. I love how insanely puffed out his fur looks while running. I swear they could make stuffed animals that looked just like him, and children would go nuts over them.

Now, we have two dogs, a male and female. They love to lick babies. Love, love, love, love, love, love, love it. Especially our female, Sophia. My husband and I joke that for the first few months of life, our children know our dogs only as Tongue 1 and Tongue 2. Their soft, luscious fur remains elusively out of reach to our tiny baby. But their tongues can cover a huge amount of distance! Our dogs are also kind of mischievous like Thing 1 and Thing 2 from the Dr. Seuss books. They are not the most well behaved dogs in the world. Anyway, one of the pictures that I ended up with was this.

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This is Tongue 1. If you love dogs you probably are laughing right now like I was when I saw this gem among the other dog photos. I love how her crazy, flipped out tongue is the most in focus of anything else in the picture. It just really captured her personality, a little neurotic, very loving, and very mischievous. So laugh away, and maybe try taking some photos of your own dogs.

Here is a link to the article about taking dog action portraits for your enjoyment.

http://digital-photography-school.com/6-tips-for-photographing-dogs-in-action/

Enjoy, and have a great day!

Travel theme: Freedom

/ Marie / 1 Comment

What is freedom? That is a very simple question with a very complex answer. One of the things I love about travel is the freedom I feel from every day life. Especially with four children at home, the daily grind sometimes seems a never-ending cycle of preparing food, cleaning up, changing diapers, etc…What’s interesting is those tasks are still somewhat present even while traveling with kids, but the new experiences, vistas and cultural experiences make these sometimes mundane tasks seem less all encompassing.

But even before we had children, traveling and the adventure of it always provided a sense of freedom. So, here are some photographs that illustrate what makes me feel free.
HPIM0387There is something about being in absolutely the middle of nowhere, completely cut off from the modern world, that evokes a sense of freedom. Out there, one has the time to ponder, to enjoy the moment. A conversation with your inner self about your dreams and desires is much more achievable when there are less distractions. Solitude can mean freedom.

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Viewing great achievements in stone and architecture by man gives me a sense of freedom. What great things we are capable of if we dare to dream, to plan, to achieve! From ancient times to modern, mankind has created amazing buildings, bridges, tunnels, works of art. Seeing these amazing things gives me a sense of freedom to embrace my own creativity, to dare to make something extraordinary out of my life.

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I feel gratitude that we have some measure of economic freedom, meaning we don’t struggle to provide food for our family. There are people who are born, grow up, and die living the same kind of life that their families have lived for generations. I feel freedom in having chosen my own kind of life, and that I have the economic freedom to travel and see many different places and cultures. Not everyone is that lucky.

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Education gives me a sense of freedom. I don’t mean only a formal education, but continuing to expand my knowledge and experience gives me the freedom to see the world through many different lenses. I hope that it builds my understanding and compassion of others. These two qualities allow people from different backgrounds to connect and build friendships. That is also freedom.

Thanks to “Where’s my backpack?” for providing this the Travel theme: Freedom. You can follow this link to the original blog post regarding Travel theme: Freedom.

http://wheresmybackpack.com/2014/12/12/travel-theme-freedom/

Happy travels everyone!

Why I am writing this blog….

/ Marie / 3 Comments

A few years ago, when we had only a two year old, and a 4 month old baby, we took a trip to Puerto Rico. We decided to spend part of our trip at an eco lodge on the south side of the El Yunque rain forest. It was a very isolated place, close to waterfalls thundering over huge boulders into swimming holes, deep in the tropical jungle. For dinner, there was only one place to go to eat, about a mile down the main road from the eco lodge. This meant that everyone who was staying at the eco lodge ate dinner there. We would all walk down along the main road, our way lit only by the moon and stars. It is a special breed of traveler that chooses to stay in that kind of location far from resorts and a variety of amenities. They have the best travel stories. As we would eat together, we would trade stories of our travels around the world. One traveler told a tale of being on a train in the Italian countryside that caught on fire and had to be evacuated. Another told of caves on the island of Crete where there were wild parties in the 60’s. I realized that one of the elements of travel I love is the stories that emerge, and the sense of community that exists among fellow travelers.

El Yunque Swimming Hole

El Yunque Swimming Hole

I love travel. I love talking about travel, reading about travel, watching shows about travel, and writing about travel. That sense of community that I have found in my travels all over the world, I want to find here in my blog. Whether you travel with children as we do, or solo, or with friends, I hope you find that sense of community here as well.