On the shelf next to my desk at work is a rather unique ceramic picture frame with moose around the edges. The frame was a secret Santa gift from a co-worker the first Christmas after I came to work at SHS ... that was 11 years ago, so the fact that I still have the frame prominently displayed means that it must be pretty special to me. Not only do I still have the frame perched in a location where I see it every day that I'm at work, it still contains the same photo I placed in it when I received it. I've thought about replacing the photo with a newer, more up-to-date shot of me and my children, but the truth is that the family photo that's in the frame is one of my favorite pictures of me and my kiddos. We all have on cowboy hats, and Meghann and I have on overalls, and the backdrop is Adams Falls, a gorgeous waterfall in Rocky Mountain National Park. It's not the hats or the overalls or the gorgeous scenery that makes that particular photo so very special to me ... it's the smiles on the faces of my three children, smiles that reflect what a fun and happy time we had together that day.
Every day when I look at my moose frame on the shelf, I can't help but think about the shoes that Meghann was wearing that day ... shoes that she wore almost every day until she could no longer squeeze her feet into them. They were red ... red leather cowgirl boots that matched the red cowboy hat that sat atop her silky blonde hair. I don't remember what sparked Meg's boot phase, nor do I remember where the red boots came from ... but I do remember how much my little girl loved those boots. Just a couple of weeks ago, Meghann and Barrett were in town and stopped by my office to visit with me for a few minutes. For some reason, Meghann's attention was drawn to the old picture in my ceramic moose frame, and I smiled as she told her husband about her beloved red cowgirl boots. Though it was my grown-up, married daughter telling the story, that's not the Meghann I saw in my mind ... I saw a little girl ... I saw my little girl in her much-loved red cowgirl boots, red hat and overalls.
A lot of the gals in my office wear boots ... some wear dressy boots, some wear casual boots and some wear cowgirl boots. It's been many years since I've worn cowgirl boots, though I used to wear them all the time when I was young. Maybe it's part of the whole midlife crisis thing, but I've been having some really serious boot envy lately ... and I do mean really serious boot envy. The people who sit near me have had to endure my lamenting about wanting a pair of boots for several weeks now, so when one of them told me about a western store that would negotiate on their prices, I decided to go have a look over my lunch hour today. After trying on several pairs of boots and haggling with the sales guy on price, I left the store with a pair of cowgirl boots that are, in the words of my friends at work ... totally freaking awesome. And get this ... since the boots were the last pair they had in that particular style and they just so happened to be my size, I purchased them for less than half of the original price. I wore them for the rest of the afternoon at work, even though I looked kind of dumb in my jeans, Converse hoodie and cowgirl boots. But I didn't care, and neither did anyone else. There is one thing they do care about, though ... they care about me being happy, and if wearing my new cowgirl boots with a zip-up hoodie made me happy, that's all that mattered to them. There's a lesson there, you know ... a great big old lesson that I'm going to let you figure out on your own.
I really like my new boots ... you know ... Meghann used to sleep in hers sometimes ... and I am really tired and sleepy tonight ... hmmmm.
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