Tanglewood

The place is magical.
I wasn't introduced to it until I was a young adult, but it quickly seduced me with its charms.


Close your eyes and visualize this:
It's a mild summer evening.
The stars are twinkling overhead.
You're sitting on a broad lawn, with lawn chairs and picnic blanket spread out.
You just ate a gourmet picnic.
You have a glass of wine in hand.
Everyone around you is happy, basking in the magic of the place.
The sun is setting gloriously behind you.
One of the world's premier orchestras in onstage, ahead of you.
They're outside, too.
The music wafts across the lawn and out into the night.
Your heart soars and dips along with the music.
The world feels still and peaceful.
You're at peace.


That's the best I can do to explain Tanglewood. It's the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. They host other performers, as well. But if you like classical music, Tanglewood is your musical mecca.


It's become a bit of a family tradition. We try to go at least once a year. This was the first year we took both girls and all enjoyed it. (previous attempts were less than successful, to say the least.) The girls picked out their favorite sun dresses. They wanted to be fancy. They danced when the music was danceable. MeToo guffawed at the giant bass drum in "Fanfare for the Common Man", she thought its sudden beats were hysterical. When the music got quieter, they colored and looked at books. When it got too dark, they wrapped themselves in the picnic quilt. When it got too late, MeToo snuggled into her stroller with her paci and doll, and put herself to bed. HeyMama followed a bit later, snuggled in the blanket. Then BestestHusband and I could finally snuggle into our chairs and just enjoy the music. Just like we did before we had kids.


I have a lot of wonderful memories from growing up, but I wonder what it would be like to have childhood memories of going to Tanglewood. That's a gift we plan to give to HeyMama and MeToo. We look forward to making those memories.

Celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary and Tanglewood's 75th birthday.

HeyMama had a blast running races with herself on the lawn near the visitor's center.

MeToo had a blast rolling in the soft grass. HeyMama eventually joined her.
Check out that view...

Not a bad picnic dinner...

Magical Scarf

I have a magical scarf. Ok, technically, it’s a shawl. I wear it as both a scarf and a shawl, but mostly a scarf. It is a much-loved Christmas gift from BestestHusband:  incredibly soft, incredibly warm, and bright cranberry in color. Cashmere. And apparently magical.

So after church today, we had a congregational lunch and meeting where we discuss business matters and vote on decisions to drive future activity in our congregation. We discuss incredibly exciting matters such as budgets, replacing windows, electing people to district advisory boards, etc. The necessary stuff that doesn’t require a pastor to do it. Anyway, enough about the incredibly exciting event that kept us 2 hours after church…

The kids usually run around in the Sunday school rooms, requiring occasional shushing and intervening, but largely entertaining themselves while we parents do business stuff. The meeting typically runs right through nap time, which can cause a fair amount of misery for our family. But today the scarf worked its magic.

MeToo was starting to look a little sleepy and was rubbing her eyes, and came over and climbed up on my lap. So I wrapped the scarf around us like a blanket to keep her warm (it’s chilly in the church basement). And she immediately cuddled up against my chest and fell asleep. Deeply asleep. She took a nap in my lap. This is a truly rare thing; I don’t think she’s done it since she was about 9 months old.

This has happened once before. HeyMama was sitting in my lap during an evening concert. As soon as I wrapped the scarf around us, she cuddled up against me and fell asleep. She never naps in the evening! And hadn’t napped on me since around 9 months old. But she too took a long cozy nap in my lap.

Now I’m not a nap-in-my-lap kind of Mama. Sure, it was necessary when they were tiny, but I was happy to transition them to sleeping in a crib. The constant physical contact is just too much for me, and I didn’t want them to be dependent on me for sleeping.

But once in a while, especially now that they’re older and generally good sleepers, the naps are kinda nice. Especially when we’re in a quiet place and them being awake would likely be disruptive. It’s nice to feel their constantly increasing weight and size wrapped up in my arms. To have them melt into my chest like warm toddler goo. I like to breathe in the smell of their hair and kiss the top of their heads. It reminds me of the long-ago days when they were tiny little creatures that didn't throw tantrums or openly defy me. 

Except that I get more sleep.

It's just magical.