Mommy Watch Me !!!

Congratulations to Shannon E. Kennedy

Featured Words of Wisdom writer

July 9, 2010

The Writer 

with her laptop, trusty pup, green monkey and goblet of well chilled chardonnay

Photograph by Joan Harrison 

Artist and Author of Doing it with Grace

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Last summer, while vacationing in Lake Tahoe, I watched a young boy beg for his mothers attention as he swam in the hotel pool.

"Mommy watch me, MOMMY watch me!" he shouted over and over and over again.

Mommy was too busy balancing a diaper-clad newborn between her hip and breast, conversing with carefree adults and half-eyeing her three OTHER children, to acknowledge her toe-head, sunscreen slathered son, swimming confidently without his water wings. 

My husband and I were deliberately detached - sunbathing on the far side of the pool - with tall drinks, dark glasses and zero responsibility.

Despite the incomparable beauty of blooming peaks against blue skies, "Mommy watch me" was all we could focus on.

Irritated red and tender to the touch, my husband was about to leave the pool when I express MY desires.

"Will you watch me dive?" I ask

"There's no diving board" he answers
"That's  true... but, if there was... would you watch me?"

Lake Tahoe is our last stop before plunging into the hardpan desert terrain at Burning Man - an annual, non conventional, festival that focuses on radical self-expression and self-reliance.

 Burning Man - Black Rock City
polaroid transfer by Jalinde

This will be my 8th year attending Burning Man and my (third) husband's first.

This Watch Me moment helps me realize that, what I want most from my first coupled Burning Man experience, is for my levelheaded husband to watch me willfully free fall into the pit of 50 thousand like-minded dreamers, doers and abstract thinkers that make up this limit-free, temporary city.

Once we reach Burning Man, I share the story with our campmates (aka "chosen family") and am pleased to discover that we all, on some level, relate to the need to be watched and celebrated.

"Mommy Watch Me" becomes a reoccurring theme throughout the week.  We take it a step further by propping a Watch Me mirror and spot-light chair in the center of our cozy camp.

Watch Me therapy exposes my need to be the focus of my lovers interest - to have him witness me engaged in an environment that make me happy, excited and proud. And perhaps most important, that it is OKAY to ask for his attention (as apposed to "acting out").

When I'm not twirling a baton, hula hooping, costuming, painting, photographing or dancing... I enjoy (crave) having YOU read what I've written.

Well...today is MY DAY to be seen!  Today, I am a featured writer or "Blogger of Note" for Words of Wisdom or WOW for short.

WOW is a community of writers, readers and photographers, who enjoy thought provoking, insightful writing.

This is just the kick in the ASS that I need!

Lately, I've been more focused on birds than words - as you'll see from my most recent posts.

So please DO sit back...pour yourself a cup, mug, goblet, or bowl of your favorite beverage and watch me WOW you with a few of my favorite posts.

Green Monkey, a short story, tells the beginning of my healing after the death of my son.  The story will be included in a book appropriately called Burning Man Stories by Phil Steele.  This thrills me because THEY - the lovers, dreamers and doers that attend or inspire to attend Burning Man will know that my son, Kerry Ryan Magann, "Lived and Burned" as Kerry once wrote.

Play Date for Dad is about the ongoing, ever-changing connection with my once larger then life, now frail father.  It's light and humorous and I'm told, by those who know me all too well, that my voice resonates clearest here.

First Taste of Summer is a poetically flirtatious remembrance of a young girls first kiss.

Happy Whee Day is classic, silly ME getting sidetracked by my quirky, over active imagination.

Halfway down my main page and also across the top are more of MONKEYS BEST.

I don't post as regularly as some of my favorite bloggers.  Often my over-thinking or over-tweaking gets in the way.  Lately I've been incorporating photo's and art from artists I've found on Etsy and in google searches.  There is a plethora of talent out there!

And speaking of talent...

I'd like to acknowledge Joan Harrison, author of Doing it With Grace.  Joan and I grew up in the same small town, first met in kindergarten when we were 5 but didn't get to know each other until facebook at the age of 50.

When I first saw Joan's blog I was blown away.  She's creative and funny and a joy to read.  She was the inspiration for starting my blog.  Seeing her main page photo and reading her content made me hungry enough to start my own.  Thank you Joan!  And thank you for taking the time to visit and photograph me and sweet Miss Lucy.  Seeing myself in a photograph, labeled as a "writer" makes it seem... more real.

Westmoreland School Kindergarten class

Trucksville, PA

Joan Harrison - second row, far right 

Shannon Kennedy - front row, far left 

Before closing, I'd like to thank Sandy and Pam - the creators and hosts of Words of Wisdom.  If you've never been to the site, do check it out and if you like what you find please consider encouraging other writers, readers, lovers, dreamers, doers and thinkers, to join.

 

Here's to blue sky's, tall glasses, gentle breezes, lessons learned and.... moments in the spotlight ~

Love, Light and Laughter,
Monkey ME

Green Monkey Tales © 2010 Shannon E. Kennedy


for a great read on Burning Man: 
The Truth About Burning Man

In Honor and In Memory

of my son

Kerry Ryan Magann

You asked that we tell your son the good things about you.
I promise to tell the world. 

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