How many of you knew these words were from a song named Big Yellow Taxi. Or, that it was originally written and performed by Joni Mitchell? Does your memory of this song have Adam Duritz from the Counting Crows singing it featuring Vanessa Carlton? Or maybe you remember the sweet voice of Amy Grant singing her version. Well… the verse that always grabbed my attention was this one. 

They took all the trees and put ‘em in a tree museum
And then they charged all the people twenty-five bucks just to see ‘em
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot 

One of my favorite aspects of living in Nosara, Costa Rica is

Do you ever wonder what habits, thoughts, and lessons your kids are TRULY picking up from you? I know my wife, Jodi and I think about this a lot. Matter of fact, I can remember vividly when our daughter, Sage, was a toddler and we were “teaching” her about right and wrong, do’s and don’ts, the good, the bad, the ugly… you know, the typical parenting stuff you read in What To Expect: The Toddler Years.  Well… let’s just say if we had more time to think BEFORE we acted we might have handled this particular situation a tad bit differently. After our failed parenting session, I said to Jodi, “I think we just gave Sage some good stuff for her first therapy session. Forget the college fund; we need to setup a therapy fund.” Of course we chuckled at each other and committed to improving ourselves so this would not happen again.

As Sage has moved into her upper elementary years, there’s a whole new set of rules for parenting.  Who knew? Maybe you did, but we sure did not. NOW…

Being a Buckeye (to the lay person, this means I grew up in Ohio)… I was no stranger to the four (4) seasons of the year. Winter always gave us a white blankety landscape where we could ride on lunch trays (our version of sleds) down a hill; barrel down bigger hills on skis; ice skate on ponds, build snow forts and snowmen, have outrageous snowball fights, and my favorite – drink hot cocoa with lots of marshmallows! In Spring, the days would become warmer and longer and flowers would brighten the landscape; we would hunt for Easter eggs, play tag in the rain, throw a ball around with some friends, roll down a grassy hill and then just lay there looking at the clouds trying to figure out what they look like. All this fun was Spring’s way of announcing the promise of summer which would drive excitement into every school child. Then you would hear the ring of the Ice Cream truck, and you knew Summer was here! This meant you would have ALL DAY to do nothing, if you wanted… OR, all day to do EVERYTHING:  swimming, baseball, tennis, kick the can, picnics in the park, camping, fishing, bike rides… <takes a breath>… 

I’m not going to get into where Columbus actually landed and who really discovered America. I just want to celebrate the man – Christopher Columbus – for being a significant historical figure in our world who brought the Americas into the forefront of Western attention. “Columbus’ claim to fame isn’t that he got there first,” explains historian Martin Dugard, “it’s that he stayed.”.

In “My World,” I’m embarrassed to say that hearing the name Christopher Columbus does not immediately send my thoughts to the discoverer of America but instead… to the director of the first two Harry Potter movies. I know, I know… sacrilege, but remember I LOVE movies and I LOVE to read. The love of books and movies led me to the Harry Potter series, which I think is a brilliant piece of literature and film.

OK… back to the man for which we are celebrating this day – Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Columbus).

How many of you remember Mom, your friend’s Mom, or a teacher saying, “Don’t run with those scissors in your hands!”? OH, the memories… except mine included, “or I’m going to tell your Dad when he gets home.” AND I sure didn’t want this, so I stopped… put the scissors in my pocket… and started running again. Haha! We all think we’re so very clever as kids. I used to tell my Mom and Dad that I did not REALLY want to do these bad things; I NEEDED to so I could be more prepared for when I had kids. Yeah, right… my attempts at philosophical logic didn’t work either – they had my number.

Anyway, check this out… in Costa Rica, you might just hear, “Don’t run with the machete!” Yep, it’s true. All of these words could be in the same sentence AND it would be a normal sentence. Who knew?!