What if I get lost?<\/em><\/p>\nBut then I reminded myself I was armed with \u201cThe Triple Threat\u201d and confidently told myself I would be fine. I could get us home. No problem.<\/p>\n
I hopped on the interstate and began to drive. And drive. And drive.<\/p>\n
I thought to myself, we should be getting close to home now.<\/p>\n
(Now I am not making excuses here, well, I guess maybe I am, but please keep in mind I did not grow up here. I have lived in this area for three years and have not ventured around the state much at all. However, when I saw a sign for a town that I knew was in the OPPOSITE direction of my home, I knew I had a made a terrible mistake.)<\/p>\n
I pulled off. The children, who had been chatting nicely with each other (except for the thumb sucker who was now looking glazed over), suddenly sat up and looked out the window.<\/p>\n
\u201cUh\u2026Miss Rachel\u2026\u201d Little Professor was the first to speak up.<\/p>\n
He broke the bad news to me ever so gently, \u201cI think you went the wrong way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then Bambi in a meek and bewildered voice, \u201cAre we lost?\u201d<\/p>\n
Then Easy Rider, \u201cMama, are we almost home? I am tired.\u201d<\/p>\n
I knew it would be best to remain calm, so I had to take a few breaths before I responded. I did not want the children to return home with a new list of vocabulary words that would have made Bambi\u2019s grandmother blush profusely.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, profane words are about the only words that come to mind when you realize you just drove the WRONG WAY for 45 minutes!!!!<\/p>\n
But I managed to swallow the curse words and exhaled slowly.<\/p>\n
I released the death grip on the steering wheel and wiped the sweat from my forehead.<\/p>\n
I took my foot off the gas, resisting the urge to drop the pedal to the floor and squeal my tires as I merged into southbound traffic.<\/p>\n
\u201cKids,\u201d I calmly informed them, \u201cMiss Rachel went the wrong way. We are not lost. I know where we are, but it is going to take a little time\u2026I mean\u2026a LONG time\u2026to get home.\u201d<\/p>\n
I let them know that I would call their teacher and she would call their parents so they would not worry.<\/p>\n
Then I said this to them, or maybe it was more to myself, \u201cEverything will be alright.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought they would fuss. I thought they would whine. I thought they would pout. I was certain one of them would angrily demand to see my driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n
But they didn\u2019t. Not a peep. They sat there like perfect little angels.<\/p>\n
The only one whining, fussing, and pouting was the Big Baby behind the steering wheel.<\/p>\n
In my mind, a huge melt down was taking place\u2026<\/p>\n
I thought about that one precious hour I was supposed to have at home that was now gone.<\/em><\/p>\nI thought of all the things I had planned to accomplish in that one hour that would now have to wait.<\/em><\/p>\nI berated my navigation system and considered throwing it out the window. <\/em><\/p>\nI said some not so nice things to my brain, which I felt had so badly failed me. <\/em><\/p>\nI complained about being tired and cursed my lack of insight to put some Diet Coke in the car in case of dire emergencies such as this one!<\/em><\/p>\nI whined about having to drive for another 90 minutes when all I wanted was to be home. <\/em><\/p>\nAnd then suddenly, I looked in my rear view mirror. And what was staring back at me snapped me back into reality; it was the Hands Free Slap In The Face that I desperately needed at that moment.<\/p>\n
There sat three beautiful, healthy, completely original, adorable and positively brilliant children who continued to chat and look out the window as if they were happily riding the train to visit Santa at the North Pole.<\/p>\n
You would have never guessed they had just been subjected to a 45 minute ride to Nowhere<\/em>, only to be informed that we would not be getting out, simply turning around to travel back home <\/strong>from Nowhere<\/em> for 90 minutes!!!<\/p>\nFinally Control-Freak-Plan-Everything-to-the-Last-Minute-Obsessive-Compulsive-Fly Off-The-Handle-When-Something-Goes-Amiss Drill Sergeant Rachel shut up just long enough to hear her calm and logical Hands Free inner voice pipe up with a few questions:<\/p>\n
When do you have 90 minutes of exclusive, non-distracted time to talk with your child and her dear little friends? When do you have 90 minutes to know the inner workings of their creative little brains? When do you have 90 minutes to not be anywhere but where you currently are, enjoying THIS moment that has been gifted to you?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\nNow. You have it now. And you may never have it again. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\nSo stop wasting this PRECIOUS time complaining about what could have been. And start enjoying what IS. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\nPerhaps this could be the best mistake of your life, Rachel.<\/em><\/p>\nAnd then in my cheerful teacher voice I announced we would be playing a game to pass the time.<\/p>\n
Really? We will? Could that really be me? (Drill Sergeant Rachel often doesn\u2019t know when to quit.)<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\nI gave them a letter of the alphabet and they had to think of a food that began with that letter. They thought of all kinds of interesting and delicious foods.<\/p>\n
With food words like pepperoni, pretzels, and popsicles the mile markers came quickly.<\/em><\/p>\nThen we moved on to animals. They named animals they had seen that day on the farm. They thought of animals they have longed to see in real life. They named animals that were just funny words to say.<\/p>\n
With animal words like monkey, mongoose, and muskrat the laughter came easily.<\/em><\/p>\nAnd after that we moved on to movie characters, which was Easy Rider\u2019s forte. She even forgot about how much she loved her thumb to participate in this discussion.<\/p>\n
With names like Captain Underpants, Cat Woman, and Care Bears, time and place completely disappeared, only the here and now remained.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\nIn fact, I forgot my own agenda; I was absorbed into the moment, the sacred moment that I held in my hand and had almost tossed away in frustration and anger.<\/p>\n
I decided this experience might be one of my best Hands Free lessons thus far. And my \u201cteachers\u201d were all under the age of five, less than four feet tall, and often chew with their mouths open. But they knew things that I didn\u2019t about surviving\u2026no, make that thriving<\/em><\/strong>, in times of frustration and hostility.<\/p>\nThe Lessons of the Little People:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n*Always look at the bright side. Or as Bambi put it, \u201cAt least we didn\u2019t drive all the way to California.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n*Games make you forget that you are in a car. Or as Easy Rider put it, \u201cOh no! We are home already. Can we keep driving so we can keep playing?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n*You don\u2019t need technology to occupy yourself. Or as Little Professor put it, \u201cThis is TV Free Week; we cannot watch a movie or we will all kill our brain cells.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\nAnd finally,<\/p>\n
*If you find that you are lost, might as well make the most of it. Or as Bambi said, \u201cThis was fun being lost with you, Miss Rachel. Can I ride in your car again?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\nJust look what I found when I ended up in a place I thought I didn\u2019t want to be.<\/p>\n
I am so glad I didn\u2019t miss this trip\u2026the priceless trip to Nowhere.<\/em><\/p>\nIn fact, I think I will make a point to return to that wondrous place again soon.<\/p>\n
******************************************************************************<\/p>\n
Next time you find yourself in a place you really didn\u2019t want to be or didn't plan to be\u2026open your eyes, open your heart, and open your mind. Maybe this is exactly where you are supposed to be.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What I am about to tell you may surprise you. It is not something I like to advertise about myself. In fact, very few people know this about me. I have a problem, but I have managed to hide it well. Yet, in order to share this story, I must divulge this little known personal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,18],"tags":[58,372,370,369,10,1526,373,371,1518],"gutentor_comment":11,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/IMG_4567-e1305753867614.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1fUJF-rv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}