The Dragon Bracelet

3 Comments September 17, 2019 drworobec

I’m going to tell you a story that’s going to warm your heart. Ready? Buckle up friends, this one is going to make you smile:

On Saturday morning, our neighbours had a garage sale. They were setting up as my sleepy-eyed children wandered out of their bedrooms and down the stairs. My kids know that I often say yes to garage sale bargains, and I agreed to give them $5 each to spend at the sale. My husband was away for the weekend, and as I puttered about the kitchen making breakfast, my kids happily scoured the treasures next door, decked out in pyjamas and bedhead.

They came home with a large several-trips-needed-to-carry karaoke machine and a framed picture of two zebras. Impressed by the eclectic nature of their choices and the massive neighbour discount given to them, the karaoke machine went into the basement for hours of loud, uninterrupted fun, and the zebra picture went onto my daughter’s bedroom wall. But, as with many impromptu purchases and the lessons needed to be learned about money, they began to tell me about all of the other cool stuff they’d seen.

“Mom, can we just have $5 more, and then we can get this, and this, and this!”

I explained that if they wanted anything more, they would have to buy it with their own money, and the discussion soon turned to a silver bracelet that they’d both seen. My daughter wanted it because it reminded her of a dragon tail, and my son wanted it because it reminded him of Harry Potter and wizards. The arguing began and I told them that if they wanted to purchase this special bracelet, they would first have to figure out how to share it fairly, minus the sibling squabbles.

They were mulling this idea over as we climbed into the truck and backed out of our driveway…… and as we glanced back at the garage sale, we saw the seven-year-old girl who lives on the other side of us walking up to the table to purchase, you guessed it, the coveted bracelet. My daughter cried; she had envisioned taking her 50 cents back to the sale and purchasing the dragon tail bracelet to wear forever and always. There’s a lot of absolutes when you’re seven. But here’s where the story will warm your heart:

We went to Burlington Sports & Spine Clinic for the morning (when I’m solo-parenting, my kids sometimes spend time with Netflix in the clinic’s massage room) and returned to find a gift on our front step, addressed to my daughter.

“To Casey,” the card read, “I saw you looking at this bracelet and I wanted to get it for you. I hope you like it. From, K.”

I think I’ll end the story right here. What else is there to say? Three days later, and I’m still marvelling at the kindness and thoughtfulness of that moment. I hope that it brings some joy to you too.

History in the Making

Leave a comment June 11, 2019 drworobec

We remember moments; moments in history that define our culture and plot certain times in our lives like the points on a graph, those “where-were-you-when” moments that happen every so often. If you’re a sports fan in Canada, you’re in the midst of one of those moments right now.

Although the official viewing numbers haven”t been released yet, most of us were watching last night, and many of us living in Eastern Standard Time are bleary-eyed, nursing an emotional hangover this morning. Last Friday’s Game 4 win was the highest-ranked sports broadcast of the entire year, and I suspect last night’s game 5 ranks in that mix too. And while a Monday night game is not ideal, settle in friends, our next moment happens on Thursday.

My children have grown into avid sports fans, and although my seven-year-old tapped out after the first quarter, my ten-year old made it to midnight. He was perched on the edge of his seat, watching the final minutes of the game unfold in his pyjama pants and Raptor’s jersey. They’ve seen the excitement building; the Raptor’s days at school, the flags flying on car windows, the #WeTheNorth cupcakes and cookies and hats. And they’ve felt the energy in Burlington’s Burlassic Park and marvelled at the fans camped out in Toronto, waving cardboard Drake heads and jumping for joy. They watch the pre-game promos intently, Raptors in 30 before school, and my seven-year-old daughter can rhyme off the starting lineup and half the bench. They’ll be fans for life, officially hooked.

We’ve been explaining to them the significance of this playoff run for the past couple of months. In their short lifetimes, they’ve also seen the Jays almost get there, and they remember how our living room erupted after Bautista’s 2015 bat flip. But they definitely don’t realize the rarity of this event, and how long Toronto sports fans have been waiting for a championship.

They’ll be watching on Thursday night too, and on Sunday, if it comes to that. And we’ll go to the parade- we’ll load ourselves onto the GO train, we’ll pull them out of school, we’ll be decked out in our Raptor’s red. We’ll join the thousands upon thousands of other fans who have been waiting so long for our team to win. Why? Because this is history in the making.

And that’s the best part of all this, isn’t it? The camaraderie, the collective excitement, the coming-togetherness. We’ve united from coast to coast, all part of a common goal, all sharing a common dream. This is our time, our turn, our year.

Go Raps.

The Good Ol’ Days are Now.

Leave a comment May 28, 2019 drworobec

There are times in history where we all remember where we were when that specific moment passed. Tragic events, like Princess Diana’s death or the events of 9/11, or the really happy stuff, like weddings and babies and birthdays. But what about the day-to-day? The average? The routines?

My son and I were sitting at my daughter’s lacrosse practice on Sunday evening, and in the waning moments of her drills, he started scrolling through the photos on my phone. We reminisced about pictures at the start of my camera roll, dating all the way back to 2013; from loose teeth and Halloween parties to vacations and baseball games. “Oh, the good ol’ days,” he said flippantly, with the tongue-in-cheek nonchalance that only a ten-year-old can muster. He didn’t mean it, of course, but his statement made me take pause.

This was one of the “good ol’ days” photos he was referring to.

The good ol’ days.

The thing about the good ol’ days is that they seem better when shined up with the lens of nostalgia. In fact, in a few years, today will be one of those good ol’ days.

It was a good reminder for me to live in the present, be in the moment, have gratitude for today. It’s something that many of us struggle with I’m sure, and as a Type-A Virgo, my drive to always be onto the next, striving for more, pushing the limits, can sometimes be too much.

Breathe.

Pause.

Take it in.

Today is a good ol’ day.