Adventures at Rasa Ranch #22

[Guest guest]

"Breaking the Rules with Holiday Cheer"

 

This past holiday season, my mother, who wanted to spend some time

with her only grandchild, flew us out to visit her. After hours and

hours of traveling from one side of the US to the other, including

extra security measures at airports, long lines, stop-overs, etc.,

Ananda and I were finally seated in my mom's car on the way to her

house. My little girl (recently turned four) who had never been to a

place as big and busy as an airport, let alone seen an airplane up

close before, was really wonderful. She had helped to make the

journey quite enjoyable for the both of us.

 

I strapped her into the contraption that my mother had put in the car

specifically for her and she dozed a bit, but when she awoke she was

understandably disoriented and she reached her arms out to me, seated

beside her, and whimpered to be held. Naturally, I unbuckled her and

she settled quietly into my lap as a I soothingly explained that it

was very late at night and we were almost all the way to Grandmom's

house.

 

Meanwhile, my mom's husband had pulled the car over. Apparently, they

had decided to teach us a lesson about car safety and traffic laws and

were not going to budge until Ananda was buckled in again. It didn't

seem to matter that we had been traveling for more than twelve hours,

or that it was going on 2am on a Thursday, or that we were only a

little less than five miles from their house.

 

Ananda came up with a great idea. She suggested that we buckle

ourselves into the same seatbelt together. I told her that that was

fantastic (!), but the drivers vetoed it. Then there was such an

intense atmosphere in the car. The silence was as thick as mud.

Ananda began to cry, saying, "Mommy, I don't want to be here anymore.

I want to go back home!"

 

So you know what we did? I got directions to their place and we

bundled up, exited the car, and we hoofed it, singing aloud with what

we called "dragon breath," in the cold, east coast wind all the way to

their house on the water. Ananda rode on my shoulders for most of it

and we paused to admire the Christmas light displays along the way.

We also stopped at a payphone in order to tell Daddy that we were

real close to arriving and even though we had woken him up to do

that, the joy with which we phoned was energizing and contagious!

 

When we finally made it up the steps to their front door, we may have

been tired, I may have been a little sore, our cheeks and noses were

certainly red, and we were definitely cold, but the fire burning

alive in our hearts was unquestionably ablaze.