Snapshots from Disney - Part Two

Monday
My favorite advice from Kim Wright Wiley's very helpful "Walt Disney World with Kids 2008" : "If you want to relax, you're going to the wrong place. Disney World is a high-stimulation environment, a total assault on all five senses mixed in with a constant and mind-boggling array of choices. This is not a week to take your kids off Ritalin or discuss marital issues with your spouse . . . . You can sleep later, when Mickey is done with you."

Tuesday
Breakfast with Mickey. The child’s face was purple, her mouth open but silent, her little sister screaming in terror. The mother pounded her back, then hugged her from behind in a rough embrace. Adrenaline shook me, but I could do nothing but half rise from my seat, gasping, “She’s purple. She’s purple!” and look around -- for what? An EMT? A fairy godmother?

My husband’s face said, “Let the mother do her work.” Moments later, the child was smiles again. I had to go over and see if the brave woman was okay, ask if I could give her a hug, give her a hug, for me as well as for her. The mother, a nurse, it turns out, was left shakier by the Heimlich than her newly revived princess who took my hand and asked me to visit Goofy with her. “And she helped a child in the park yesterday who was seizing,” added the grandmother. “It’s been an awful week.” “You’re a superhero,” I told the mother.


Wednesday
What is more zen than children, enchanted by an ant, filled with joy, unable to live outside this very moment?