Karl.

“Oh, you guuuyyys!  You’re looking so good.  So rad.  So fabulous!  Just stay right there…I’m going to try to get the dogs’ attention…give me some patience…you guys just look at me and we’ll hope the dogs do, too.”   I crouched under my umbrella for the Rai’s Steveston family photos and monologued — partially for myself…

Beach Family Photos are idyllic. Or, at the very least, they look idyllic.  The glowing sunset, the happy laughter, the cute-in-love parentals, the frolicking, the giggling. Memories, preserved. Real Life doesn’t usually involve meandering walks on the beach or playful moments of family unity at all the right times. Real Life isn’t always rose-gold and idyllic….

“I would sit here every night,” she said. “We counted stars and watched the fireflies.” She rested on the front stoop, finding comfort in the stair.  Anyone else would’ve felt the rough edges and hard surface, but she settled into the concrete as though it were a plush sofa. In that one seat, she found…

Each step had to be careful, deliberate.  Slow movement was the only movement.  By all appearances, the river had been covering our pathway not too long before we’d arrived and our shoes held the mud to prove it. Step. Ssssssluhzs. Step.  Ssssssluhzs.  The mud-meet-shoe made a sucking/slurping/popping/mucous-blowing sound. Step. Ssssssluhzs. Step. Ssssssluhzs. But the mud…