Kiku Collins: New Blog

Well, belated July 4th anyway!  I hope everyone had a great day - we sure did!  Playing in the sprinklers, nice long walk with deep conversation, I just love days with my girl.  It's like the world around us fuzzes out, and all that really matters is how much I adore her and am honored that I have the responsibility of raising her.  She's a good kid, a really good kid, and she probably teaches me much more than I teach her.

At the first "boom" after sundown, we realized that our good friend and neighbor was hosting firework viewing, as she has a really stellar view (ours has been mucked up by New Fancy Buildings).  She called her to check in and we ran upstairs to enjoy a spectacular fireworks show.  It's pretty amazing how technology advances in pyrotechnics.  I remember being in Japan as a child, running through the streets with other children, no common language to share, only the glint of sparklers and happiness on our faces as we somehow avoided blowing off limbs and faces with said sparklers.  Do they still run amok with flaming toys?  At the time, I got over my fear of burning up quickly, but I'm not sure I would be happy with my girl racing up and down a street like I did.  Times are so different, aren't they?  Am I overprotective?  

So we watched from a safe distance as ginormous sparklers ran up and down the streets in the sky, being held by invisible, giant, laughing children who could speak any language that involved a smile.  I watched as several helicopters flew overhead and wondered what kind of an amazing spectacle that would be from above.  I wondered if my beautiful Mom was watching from up there, smiling at the children we can't see, thinking about her own children so long ago, running through the streets of Fukuoka, dropping language and cultural barriers for the chance to hold flaming magic and experience something so rich in Asian cultures and not so common back at home.  That was home for her.  And when I think back to being there, with her, I can't help but think that was MY home too, moreso than where I grew up.

I wonder what my daughter thinks of when she recalls trips away from the city.  She has seen a bit of the world, swam in the ocean in the South of France, made friends on that beach with not a word spoken, meandered the streets of Paris knowing how to say "croissant" and "sunglasses".  She has been in the clean air of Michigan, Colorado, frolicked in the oceans on the Florida coast, played in the fountains of Boston, picked strawberries and caught butterflies in rural Mass, enjoyed the oceans of the Jersey Shore, Virginia Beach... so many other wonderful places at her young age.  Me, I had only been to Japan by her age.  Maybe Florida via driving with a camper strapped to the family car.

As we sit in our apartment on a sweltering-hot day, the cure for such a sticky day is apparently to crank the A/C (which is not cold at all!) and bake a chocolate cake.  Seems reasonable!

Happy Summer - it really feels like it!  

xo,

NP