When she was little, Ruby talked an atypical amount about clouds. She wanted to live on a cloud, jump on a cloud, and eat a cloud. I especially remember that today, during a flight through the exotic world of clouds, the mystery of them never gets old.

For the next 2 weeks, I decided to have a theme for each day. This is now day 3, and I create an intention each morning with whatever seems like a good idea at the time. Day 1 was No Need for Speed. Day 2: Compassion, day 3: Loud, and now day 4: Discover.

What I am discovering today:

SLOW. That the slowness of a 3-hour breakfast is just my speed if my goal is to reconnect with my son, since last being in his presence almost a year ago.

UNCOVERING. That Miles’s knowledge bank has grown exponentially since we were last together, and I want to listen to everything he can muster up to share. He now speaks Sawyer language, the words and concepts he has been immersed in while being on a conservation crew that takes chainsaws to invasive conifers. Felling, limbing, bucking, and back cuts are just a few of the many. He even teaches us that when a tree falls that has a double trunk near the top, one of the trunks gushes yellow water. Who knew.

And he also has become immersed in Kiwi (New Zealand language), talking about his jandals (flip flops), togs (bathing suit), and asking understandable but uncommon things like, “Do you reckon?”.

On this little island of Taveuni in Fiji, we met a French couple at the lodge before (another) kava drinking ceremony. We exchanged names, and they re-asked his name. “French people often have trouble saying my name. They often call me Mice, and I just answer to it. Also, the US is one of the few places that measures distance with miles, so down here, I go by Kilometers,” Miles jokes. We don’t even know this about the name we gave him. There continues to be so much more to learn.

SKIN. That touching my kids’ skin feels no different than touching my own skin. I can’t explain it, but it’s true.

KIDS. The forest and the ocean are just as mysterious to me as clouds are, but none of those are as wonderful to learn about as what I don’t know about my kids.