An Afternoon in the Jemez Mountains

It is hard to be the mother of three boys because there is very little that I have in common with them. I don't play video games or LEGOs. and in my house, they're the top two modes of recreation. Well, besides reading, but it's hard to be together when you're doing something solitary. So much of the time I feel that I can't relate to them. So what do I do? I create opportunities for us to spend some time together and I try to pick things that I think they'll enjoy. This is spring break so we've got time to get out and do things together. Each night this week we've been watching a Star Wars movie together, complete with popcorn. Monday we went bowling, which was fun. Today we rode bikes and scooters to the tennis courts and played doubles (rather poorly, I might add). But what I like to do the most with my boys is to get out and explore places, go camping, and walk on trails. I love to walk in the woods and find such peace when I do. It is how I recharge my batteries. I want to instill this kind of peace and joy that I get when walking on trails into them but they don't seem to want to cooperate half the time.

Yesterday we went exploring in the Jemez Mountains, visiting the Gilman Tunnels, railroad tunnels blown out of the rock (Paleozoic shales) for the purposes of a logging train in the 1920s. The boys seemed pretty impressed with the tunnels and the canyon carved by the Rio Guadalupe. The little river cascaded down the rocks in the very narrow canyon. Beautiful.

Anyway, after the tunnels I thought it would be a good idea to walk a trail that we haven't been on yet. At first, the boys were all for it because that meant that they would be missing TaeKwonDo. But about a half a mile in, the youngest started to complain. And he wouldn't stop. I might have well been taking them on a Death March through the woods. So much for peace and joy on a trail. And it was only about 4 miles. They've walked longer. Maybe it was just because it was later in the day. But one thing that stood out was youngest son's stubbornness. All three of my boys have a stubborn streak. When they don't want to do something, boy, they'll be miserable about it and make sure you know it!

I'm hoping that they might not be so reluctant to walk tomorrow. Yes, I'm going to take them out for a walk again tomorrow. No, I haven't told them yet. But I will. Later. Much later. Maybe after the Star Wars movie we watch tonight.

The Dreaded "Falling" Dream

Everyone has had a dream where they are falling and then wake up startled. It's been a long time since I've had such a dream so when I woke up from falling this Sunday morning, I was not happy. It bothered me so much that I couldn't get back to sleep. How dare a dream keep me from my weekend snooze-until-noon day!

I went to the website dreammoods.com to see what my favorite dream interpretation website had to say about "falling" dreams. It is no surprise that it is one of their top 5 dream interpretation requests. They do tell the reader that contrary to popular myth, you will not die if you do not wake up before you hit the ground. I consider myself lucky that I always wake up before I hit the ground. :-)

According to dreammoods.com,

As with most common dream themes, falling is an indication of insecurities, instabilities, and anxieties. You are feeling overwhelmed and out of control in some situation in your waking life. This may reflect the way you feel in your relationship or in your work environment. You have lost your foothold and keep up with the hustle and bustle of daily life. When you fall, there is nothing that you can hold on to. You more or less are forced toward this downward motion without any control. This lost of control may parallel a waking situation in your life.

Time to do some self-examination to see what I can work through so I don't have any more falling dreams! I have a feeling I already know what is on my mind though.

One thing I did find interesting has to do with that old quack Freud. He says that a falling dream indicates "that you are contemplating giving into a sexual urge or impulse. You are lacking indiscretion."

Time

I went back in time today to freshman year in high school. Listened to a lot of old tunes that still move me today. Here's one that has always been a favorite:

Time--Pink Floyd

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.

Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say.

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