by Tara Floyd

Created on: June 07, 2008   Last Updated: June 08, 2008

There's No Such Thing as a Backseat Walker, Is there?

Recently I lost my job. Oh great, I started with a lie. I'm sorry. I know where my job is, it was just made clear to me a week ago that I can not do it anymore. Please forgive me and allow me to start again.

Recently, I was informed that my position was eliminated suddenly at my place of employment. I drove home in tears, wondering how on earth I would explain to my teenage sons my sudden departure from a local charter school.

I need not have worried. My husband followed me home that day, carrying the last vestiges of my life as a Special Education Assistant. Upon arriving at home, my beloved entered the house first and promptly said to our sons, "Your mother got fired from her job today." There, I thought. I apparently fretted for nothing because the bald man I married pre-empted the sorrow-filled confession I was about to make.

The weekend that followed was a mixture of misery and company, each boy telling me in detail what they would have done in my situation and one even going so far as to say, "Mom, all I have to do is make a call. Just say the word."

When I told him that I was okay with him making the call , he promptly grabbed his cell phone and asked me what kind of pizza I wanted. I walked away knowing that my son hasn't the connections I thought he did and I was still miserable. Even more so because now we couldn't afford the pizza.

By Monday morning, the boys were ready to help their mom get back into shape and help change her outlook on life. Packing up water bottles and trail mix as well as a first aid kit, we headed to a nearby canyon for what we thought was a short hike.

It had been three or four years since I'd hiked that canyon and gone were the days of the easy hoof up the side of a mountain. However, I was not going to let those two Boy Scouts know that I hadn't a clue where the trail we were on would lead us.

The oldest son stopped about halfway up the trail and pointed to a sign warning hikers that there was high mountain lion activity in the park that day. Ignoring the warning and pressing onward, my oldest son lead the way, kicking away cactus arms that might impale us and holding up the branches of the palo verde tree so we wouldn't get clothes-lined along the way.

The youngest brought up the rear, reminding me to take it slow and that if I needed him, he was there to help. We huffed up the side of the mountain, stopping only to grab some water and some shade from one of the magnificent Saguaro

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>