Simple Pleasures: Boys and Bikes

This past weekend was filled with much loss and sadness – on both a national and a personal level. I will write more about that tomorrow, but the great thing about life is that there is always simple pleasures in the middle of hard emotional times. The boys riding their new bikes that we bought for them a couple of weeks ago was one such pleasure.

I will admit that I almost missed out on it. I had things to do, so I wasn’t going to go with Reggie and the boys over his parents’ home. Sean started crying though because he really wanted me to go with them. (I hadn’t gone with them the last time either and he wanted to show me how he had learned to slide down a pole and ride his bike.) I’m not swayed by tears most of the time, but I was this time. I had been spending most of my time working and with friends the previous couple of days so his “I miss you. I haven’t spent any time with you!” wailed in the midst of his tears, (while somewhat exaggerated) tugged at my heartstrings. In any event, I went…and I’m glad that I did. Playing football and helping the kids learn to ride their bikes trumped everything else on my “to do” list on Saturday.