After having a good long nights rest, both Margaret and I woke up early this morning. She jumped on a conference call at 6am and I had already been working on The Palms Oceanfront Suites for a while. Max started stirring around 6:30. The first sounds were of him having a slight cough. The cough was not enough to wake him up but I knew we did not have too much time before he would bellow.
Margaret finished her call and was getting ready to leave the house just before 7 when Max finally popped his head up. Margaret hugged him a bit and let him know she needed to go to work. He laid back down only to ask where she was 10 minutes later. At that point she had already left the house and was on her way to BART.
Max was beside himself with sadness that his mother had not kissed him goodbye. Of course she had but, as he put it; “She did not wake me up and make sure I knew she was kissing me.” He wanted her to come back and give him one last kiss so he could have a “really good day.”
I called and she spoke to him for 5 minutes before her train came. He was begging her to come home because her kisses made him feel much better and asked if she could not just come back after her meeting today and not spend the whole day at work. He told her he was too sick to go to school and that he was very sad.
After she hung up, I told Max that he was going to school and that he would be dressed and sitting at the table in 5 minutes. He could either do it the easy way or the hard way, but he was going to be dressed and eating breakfast in 5 minutes. He chose the easy way (first time for everything!) and he was, in fact, eating his cereal in 5 minutes.
It was a beautiful sunny morning as Max walked out to the car (he didn’t want to ride our bikes) and we headed off to school. We arrived a few minutes early and Max was able to say hi to many of his budds before class started.
The lesson I learned this AM? Sometimes you just need to get out a little cry before the day begins in earnest. He was fine once he was able to let go of his sadness and talk with his mom. It helps, of course, that Margaret was available and extremely comforting. Sometimes it is that small connection that we are looking for… just to know that the people we love and rely on are there for us if we holler. Sometimes we simply like to hear that we are not alone, that those we love are within earshot.
As Bob Marley once said; “Every little thing… is gonna to be alright.”
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Three Little Birds – Bob Marley And The Wailers
Don’t worry about a thing,
‘Cause every little thing is gonna be alright.
Singing “Don’t worry about a thing,
‘Cause every little thing is gonna be alright!”
Rise up this mornin’,
Smiled with the risin’ sun,
Three little birds
Sit by my doorstep
Singing sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Saying; (“This is our message to you-ou-ou…”)
Singing “Don’t worry ’bout a thing,
‘Cause every little thing is gonna be alright.”
Singing “Don’t worry ’bout a thing,
‘Cause every little thing is gonna be alright!”
Rise up this mornin’,
Smiled with the rising sun,
Three little birds
Sit by my doorstep
Singing sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Saying, “This is our message to you-ou-ou…”
Singing; “Don’t worry about a thing, worry about a thing, oh!
Every little thing is gonna be alright. Don’t worry!”
Singing; “Don’t worry about a thing” – I won’t worry!
“‘Cause every little thing is gonna be alright.”
Singing “Don’t worry about a thing,
‘Cause every little thing is gonna be alright” – I won’t worry!
Singing “Don’t worry about a thing,
‘Cause every little thing is gonna be alright.”
Singing “Don’t worry about a thing, oh no!
‘Cause every little thing is gonna be alright!