ADHD pay off
It was just before Thanksgiving of 2011. Jo and I both worked for local school systems and were looking forward to Thanksgiving break when the phone rang. It was our good friends with a travel proposal…I was an instant yes before they even started to dial!
The weather had been gray for a while and they had decided to take a trip to the Keys to escape. They had rented a place with two bedrooms and out of the kindness of their hearts offered us one for free. Neither Jo or I thought it would be possible to get off work between Thanksgiving and Christmas break but decided to test the waters. We both approaching our bosses with the opportunity at the first chance. To our surprise, they both agreed saying…a free room…you have to go! Less than a week after Thanksgiving we were in the air!
Leaving a cold, gray Indiana and landing in Miami on a warm sunny day hit me like a suffocating man receiving a fresh breath of air…my soul instantly rehydrated in the sunshine and warm ocean breezes.
As we passed from key to key, exploring shops and restaurants along the way, the appreciation of the timely escape grew. Once we arrived at our destination, Marathon Key, it was time to relax and enjoy. Unfortunately for this kid, relaxation is rarely on the menu as my ADHD screams in my ear about how adventure always awaits in new places!
On this day 13 years ago, we decided to explore several of the local keys. The ladies shopped while the men waited. At one particular shop I couldn’t take the relaxing on a bench watching people go by anymore. I grabbed my camera and decided to walk out in an adjacent field to hunt for critters. Once I stepped around the corner of the shops, a canal behind the shops came into view…my heart instantly filled with hope of finding something cool!
I made my way through the tall grasses, weeds and other vegetation of the field, all of which will cut you, in my shorts and flipflops. Now standing on a rock wall looking down into the canal…nothing…nothing but an oddly curved stormwater pipe directly below. I scanned the water below, above and the skyline for any movement, nothing. And then the assumed drain pipe started moving. It was a lone manatee feeding on the wall!
Either it didn’t know that I was there, or it didn’t care but instead of fleeing the area as others had done before, it just gently surfaced and opened its nostrils to take in a breath. The distance from its nose to mine was probably 6-7 feet. My need to capture photographs of God’s creations is only outweighed by my desire to connect with His nature, eye to eye without threat. I took this shot and a few more, then went to my knees to just look into each other’s eyes. It took several more breaths and then submerged, moving on its way down the canal.
It would be very easy to sit here at my computer on this cold November day in Indiana with our first accumulating snow to start later today and wish that I was back in the Keys. But I do not. Instead, I am thinking about the chances of my encounter, the blessing of this encounter with my friend captured here. I am reminded of my favorite saying; one I have shared with thousands of young people:
Don’t cry because it is over. Smile because it happened!
Dr. Seuss
ADHD pay off
It was just before Thanksgiving of 2011. Jo and I both worked for local school systems and were looking forward to Thanksgiving break when the phone rang. It was our good friends with a travel proposal…I was an instant yes before they even started to dial!
The weather had been gray for a while and they had decided to take a trip to the Keys to escape. They had rented a place with two bedrooms and out of the kindness of their hearts offered us one for free. Neither Jo or I thought it would be possible to get off work between Thanksgiving and Christmas break but decided to test the waters. We both approaching our bosses with the opportunity at the first chance. To our surprise, they both agreed saying…a free room…you have to go! Less than a week after Thanksgiving we were in the air!
Leaving a cold, gray Indiana and landing in Miami on a warm sunny day hit me like a suffocating man receiving a fresh breath of air…my soul instantly rehydrated in the sunshine and warm ocean breezes.
As we passed from key to key, exploring shops and restaurants along the way, the appreciation of the timely escape grew. Once we arrived at our destination, Marathon Key, it was time to relax and enjoy. Unfortunately for this kid, relaxation is rarely on the menu as my ADHD screams in my ear about how adventure always awaits in new places!
On this day 13 years ago, we decided to explore several of the local keys. The ladies shopped while the men waited. At one particular shop I couldn’t take the relaxing on a bench watching people go by anymore. I grabbed my camera and decided to walk out in an adjacent field to hunt for critters. Once I stepped around the corner of the shops, a canal behind the shops came into view…my heart instantly filled with hope of finding something cool!
I made my way through the tall grasses, weeds and other vegetation of the field, all of which will cut you, in my shorts and flipflops. Now standing on a rock wall looking down into the canal…nothing…nothing but an oddly curved stormwater pipe directly below. I scanned the water below, above and the skyline for any movement, nothing. And then the assumed drain pipe started moving. It was a lone manatee feeding on the wall!
Either it didn’t know that I was there, or it didn’t care but instead of fleeing the area as others had done before, it just gently surfaced and opened its nostrils to take in a breath. The distance from its nose to mine was probably 6-7 feet. My need to capture photographs of God’s creations is only outweighed by my desire to connect with His nature, eye to eye without threat. I took this shot and a few more, then went to my knees to just look into each other’s eyes. It took several more breaths and then submerged, moving on its way down the canal.
It would be very easy to sit here at my computer on this cold November day in Indiana with our first accumulating snow to start later today and wish that I was back in the Keys. But I do not. Instead, I am thinking about the chances of my encounter, the blessing of this encounter with my friend captured here. I am reminded of my favorite saying; one I have shared with thousands of young people:
Don’t cry because it is over. Smile because it happened!
Dr. Seuss