make time for time

Going with the flow is nice on paper, but also requires a certain amount of time. If there is a schedule to keep, it involves keeping time. Usually things like intuition, imagination, or spontaneity get left behind. Today its raining outside (something I hear Vancouver is not known for) and we've had the luxury of not having anything scheduled. It sounds a bit hard to believe, but culturally we have to make an effort to “un-schedule” our lives. So making room for things to occur naturally requires the effort of pushing aside the list, tasks, and agenda's. For today, the only goal we had as two families was to spend time together, defining “hang-out” time as we went.

Right now, i've brewed a nice cup of “constant comment” and am enjoying a soft wall of sound (mogwai) band on headphones. The song playing is titled “yes, I am a long way from home”. Katrina and Joan are enjoying a bit of tea time together at a local spot she picked out before the trip. Abigail and Naomi are re-watching “Saddle Club” and side by side. Isaiah and Luke are deep into building more and more lego cities filled with every sort of hybrid they can come up with....when they run out of room, they move into the “crawl space” and keep building. Tim and the rest of the boys are of to Costco to look for new food samples and find a better sort of candy currency for the game we've been playing. Truth be told, we are slowly learning to play a style of poker we've called “Burnaby Bluff” and wagering pennies we have to return at the end of the game is not as exciting as something the winner gets to perhaps eat in the end, or share.

These are the opportunity’s that can only come from time together with the simple goal of hanging out. We are resting up, the van will be packed at sundown (or when the rain stops) and we are going to squeeze as much time these last few hours together before we head off.