Sometimes while traveling through life our imaginations can impede us. These impediments are really just bad ideas that can get in the way of our success. Today Jupiter came across one of those when he had an imaginary rock in his shoe. I am not sure how it got there, but I think I will start at the beginning and maybe we can figure it out.
Today the boys and I took an unexpected trip to the St. Louis Science Center. The Science Center is an incredible museum of science. I think I have mentioned it here before and I am fairly certain that I will again in the future. Anyone interested in any and all science should really check it out sometime. There is much to be learned there.
The only reason I brought up the Science Center today though is because of the parking situation. See the Science Center is free to get in to the main lobbies which honestly gets you quite a lot of fun, but parking is ten bucks. We are members of the Science Center and have vouchers for free parking that come with the membership. However, as I mentioned, this was an unexpected trip to the Science Center, so the vouchers were safe at home where they were completely useless to us.
Nearby the St. Louis Science Center is Forest Park. I thought that the best thing to do, as someone who needs to learn to live more frugally, would be to park in Forest Park where we could both park for free and get plenty of extra exercise on the way to the entrance of the museum. So I parked a fair distance away from the north entry to the Science Center.
On our way to the entrance, it was hot and sunny as is typical of St. Louis lately. It has been over 100º as a high most days in the past few weeks.
Jupiter was a trooper most of the way to the Science Center entrance. Tsunami, whom I was holding in one arm or another depending on which one was more tired, was also a trooper. He did not complain at all during this walk or the other two which I will mention shortly.
Once we got to the Science Center, we looked at a few of the public exhibits, and we got some tickets to a planetarium show, which were free with the membership and only required me to have my membership card which I carry with me all the time.
Upon leaving the Science Center we had some other things to do a little closer to the east side of the park. Things which I think I am supposed to suspend mentioning for now, but perhaps another post will go into that. So we walked to the east side of the park.
On that walk Jupiter started complaining a little bit more. He did not want to walk any further, but upon being queried as to why he did not want to walk, he did not respond with an answer. Without any reason for us to either stay under the tree which he had chosen as his setting for airing his complaints, or go back the way we came, we marched forward.
After doing the things that we did on the east side of the park we chose to make the trip back to the car. It is on this walk back that we get to the rock in the shoe.
We walked for a little while and eventually Jupiter told me he had a rock in his sandal. I told him that we would stop so he could get it out.
He immediately asked me to help him. However, as I usually do when he does not try himself first, I told him I would offer no help until he at least tries. Try he did, and he could not get it out. So as per my parenting style, I decided to help him and got down on one knee, putting Tsunami onto my other knee, while I helped Jupiter with his rock.
I searched high and low for the rock, but it seemed there was no rock to be found.
He then stood back up and exclaimed to me that it was still there.
Again, I checked.
Again, no rock.
I then asked him if perhaps the rock he was having trouble with was imaginary. He said that indeed it was. Finally we could actually start to work on the real task before us.
I took his sandal off one last time and made sure to clear it of any imaginary rocks. I then asked him if he saw any imaginary rocks left on the sandal. He responded that all imaginary rocks were absent from the shoe and so I put it back on.
The rest of the walk was pleasant. After getting the imaginary rock out of the way, Jupiter rarely complained the rest of the way to the car. The two times he did complain were for real rocks in his sandals, which turned out to be far easier fixes than the imaginary one had been.
I think the thing that makes it harder for us to get the imaginary rocks out of the shoes in our lives is the fear of admitting to ourselves that the rock was imaginary in the first place. We can be made to feel embarrassed that we were so easily fooled by something so unreal. Sometimes the situation is a little bit different. Sometimes the rock was real at one time but fell out on its own and feeling of the rock being there remained until we went back to check that the rock was gone. Maybe this was the case here too. I cannot be certain.
I can say for sure that there have been plenty of huge imaginary rocks making my travels hard in my life in the past. For me, as time goes on it gets easier for me to recognize that there is a possibility that the rock is imaginary and to humble myself to know that it is okay to have been fooled by something which was not real, but only imagined by me or placed there by someone else's suggestion at a time when I was more impressionable.
It is easy to remove a real rock as it is visible to the naked eye and can be easily discerned by our brains as to exactly what it takes to remove it. Imaginary rocks could be anywhere in the shoe. There are more complexities involved with searching around for it. Sometimes you need to look at the shoe from different angles and depths before you can zero in on its location. Then once you know the location of the rock you still have to figure out the size and weight before you can be sure that it is removed.
I think that we can all do a little better to remember that sometimes the rock is imaginary.
Today the boys and I took an unexpected trip to the St. Louis Science Center. The Science Center is an incredible museum of science. I think I have mentioned it here before and I am fairly certain that I will again in the future. Anyone interested in any and all science should really check it out sometime. There is much to be learned there.
The only reason I brought up the Science Center today though is because of the parking situation. See the Science Center is free to get in to the main lobbies which honestly gets you quite a lot of fun, but parking is ten bucks. We are members of the Science Center and have vouchers for free parking that come with the membership. However, as I mentioned, this was an unexpected trip to the Science Center, so the vouchers were safe at home where they were completely useless to us.
Nearby the St. Louis Science Center is Forest Park. I thought that the best thing to do, as someone who needs to learn to live more frugally, would be to park in Forest Park where we could both park for free and get plenty of extra exercise on the way to the entrance of the museum. So I parked a fair distance away from the north entry to the Science Center.
On our way to the entrance, it was hot and sunny as is typical of St. Louis lately. It has been over 100º as a high most days in the past few weeks.
Jupiter was a trooper most of the way to the Science Center entrance. Tsunami, whom I was holding in one arm or another depending on which one was more tired, was also a trooper. He did not complain at all during this walk or the other two which I will mention shortly.
Once we got to the Science Center, we looked at a few of the public exhibits, and we got some tickets to a planetarium show, which were free with the membership and only required me to have my membership card which I carry with me all the time.Upon leaving the Science Center we had some other things to do a little closer to the east side of the park. Things which I think I am supposed to suspend mentioning for now, but perhaps another post will go into that. So we walked to the east side of the park.
On that walk Jupiter started complaining a little bit more. He did not want to walk any further, but upon being queried as to why he did not want to walk, he did not respond with an answer. Without any reason for us to either stay under the tree which he had chosen as his setting for airing his complaints, or go back the way we came, we marched forward.
After doing the things that we did on the east side of the park we chose to make the trip back to the car. It is on this walk back that we get to the rock in the shoe.
We walked for a little while and eventually Jupiter told me he had a rock in his sandal. I told him that we would stop so he could get it out.
He immediately asked me to help him. However, as I usually do when he does not try himself first, I told him I would offer no help until he at least tries. Try he did, and he could not get it out. So as per my parenting style, I decided to help him and got down on one knee, putting Tsunami onto my other knee, while I helped Jupiter with his rock.
I searched high and low for the rock, but it seemed there was no rock to be found.
He then stood back up and exclaimed to me that it was still there.
Again, I checked.
Again, no rock.
I then asked him if perhaps the rock he was having trouble with was imaginary. He said that indeed it was. Finally we could actually start to work on the real task before us.
I took his sandal off one last time and made sure to clear it of any imaginary rocks. I then asked him if he saw any imaginary rocks left on the sandal. He responded that all imaginary rocks were absent from the shoe and so I put it back on.
The rest of the walk was pleasant. After getting the imaginary rock out of the way, Jupiter rarely complained the rest of the way to the car. The two times he did complain were for real rocks in his sandals, which turned out to be far easier fixes than the imaginary one had been.
I think the thing that makes it harder for us to get the imaginary rocks out of the shoes in our lives is the fear of admitting to ourselves that the rock was imaginary in the first place. We can be made to feel embarrassed that we were so easily fooled by something so unreal. Sometimes the situation is a little bit different. Sometimes the rock was real at one time but fell out on its own and feeling of the rock being there remained until we went back to check that the rock was gone. Maybe this was the case here too. I cannot be certain.
I can say for sure that there have been plenty of huge imaginary rocks making my travels hard in my life in the past. For me, as time goes on it gets easier for me to recognize that there is a possibility that the rock is imaginary and to humble myself to know that it is okay to have been fooled by something which was not real, but only imagined by me or placed there by someone else's suggestion at a time when I was more impressionable.
It is easy to remove a real rock as it is visible to the naked eye and can be easily discerned by our brains as to exactly what it takes to remove it. Imaginary rocks could be anywhere in the shoe. There are more complexities involved with searching around for it. Sometimes you need to look at the shoe from different angles and depths before you can zero in on its location. Then once you know the location of the rock you still have to figure out the size and weight before you can be sure that it is removed.
I think that we can all do a little better to remember that sometimes the rock is imaginary.
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