The Importance of Tying Your Shoes

Remember when fourteen years ago this fall a college boy stopped walking and bent over to tie his shoe? Remember how the girl slowed down so she wouldn’t overtake him, even though the whole reason he stopped was to meet the beautiful girl and walk beside her?

Remember how even car exhaust and subway grates smelled like love when they went to New York City in the spring?

Remember the ring and the ice cream in the woods and the way she said “Yes” before he could get the words out?

Remember how they tore the carpet out of their first house in Florida by themselves because it would save them some money? Remember how she called him and made him come home from work to take that innocent lizard out of the bedroom?

Remember that London train ride from Marylebone to Great Missenden when she looked at him and said, “I think I could live in England forever”?

Remember how they would drop family off at Heathrow and she would cry the whole way home?

Remember how bad she thought the contractions were, but when they got to the hospital the nurses just smiled, said she was dilated two, and sent her home?

Remember “No Woman No Cry” on the way to the delivery room in Stoke Mandeville, when “real” contractions had her pushing her feet against the windshield of their Mini?

Remember how they watched Wimbledon with the windows open so that they could smell the grass? Remember how they built a tennis court in their yard with pallets and rope and it was no Wimbledon?

Remember how, when she was 10 weeks pregnant with their third child, the OBGYN looked at them and said, “I’m so sorry. Something isn’t right”?

Remember when their son climbed up into the school bus carrying a backpack that was bigger than him? Remember how she cried when he came home and said some kids on the bus had been making fun of him?

Remember the day they were standing in the kitchen and he said they weren’t going to be able to pay their bills and she said they should move into his parent’s basement?

Remember how last year they planted their first garden and how this year all four kids helped pick weeds and harvest vegetables (well, all but the youngest one who trampled everything indiscriminately)?

Remember how they fought long into the night over the fact that sometimes they seem to be living on different planets and why doesn’t he stop and tie his shoe anymore so that they can walk together?

Remember how the boy stopped walking so fast?

9 Replies to “The Importance of Tying Your Shoes”

  1. I LOVE IT!! We also have four kids and it seems that we walk at different speeds. Thanks for sharing your walk with us and reminding us to slow down.

    Sarah

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