it’s not at all like me to avoid the rain when it comes. but for some reason, i’ve still read my share of “activities for a rainy day” articles, and you know what tops most all of them? a day at the museum. art museums, science museums, history museums, you name it. whatever sort of museum is close, whatever sort of museum you’re into. and today, it was as wet as wet can be (outside of, say, the sea). so i prepared our bag with plenty of art supplies and plenty of snacks, and i had liam slip into the fisherman jumper i had gotten him for our trip to maine, paired with his happy yellow hunter boots that add a little sunshine to any situation, and the three of us drove down toward the plaza for a rainy day spent soaking in the inspiring works of art covering every square inch of the nelson (the extraordinary neoclassical architecture of the building included).
sat in the modern wing while liam tried his hand at recreating a piece that caught his eye. asked a museum docent if they would please hang up his version of it once he had finished. had his dreams (unsurprisingly) dashed when the answer was (unsurprisingly) no. shared apple slices on a damp courtyard bench. looked at our reflections in ever-expanding puddles. listened to the trickling drip drop, drip drop of the overflowing fountains. stood beneath the swaying, early-autumn-dipped trees as though they were umbrellas. walked through the lush, water-soaked grounds. noticed, for the first time, the words — a paraphrased victor hugo quote — carved across the top of the building: “the soul has greater need of the ideal than of the real. it is by the real that we exist. it is by the ideal that we live.”
i think it’s forever etched in my mind, now, too.
little joys 