Every year, we go to Shaw Island in the San Juans to stay at the family cabin. Our time there is full of many wonderful places and things that we love - the swimming pool, the boat rides, the little general store. But the star of the show has stayed the same each year, and this year, not to mix metaphors, our star really hit a jackpot.
It's the old "Message in a Bottle" tradition.
My husband and the kids write a note each year, and make a big production of putting it in a bottle, and sealing it with wax. Somewhere in Rosario Strait, they toss it to the breeze, and the hoping begins. One year we did get a letter back from someone in La Conner. That was cool. This year our bottle made it to the dream couple.
Their names are Ed and Mary Lou Childs. They found our message in a bottle on the beach in Anacortes. Mary Lou was the right person to find it, I'll tell ya. She called the kids to introduce herself, and then she started a "chain bottle." She put the kids' notes in three bottles, and sent one to Alaska with a friend on a cruise, one to Florida with a relative, and one to Port Townsend. She included a note in the bottles, asking whoever finds them to add their own notes, add a map showing where the bottle has been, and put it back in the water. And, she asked them to get back in touch with my kids, and tell them where the bottles were found.
My kids have been tickled pink since finding the bottle and realizing they have started a "chain bottle." They keep wondering where the bottles will go next, and who will find them.
As for me, I find myself thinking of a couple of things, unrelated but somehow connected to the message in a bottle. I find myself thinking of Mary Lou and Ed. Our bottle could have bobbed along and hit a rock before it ended its journey. It could have ended up with someone who would toss it away and not look inside. But it made its way to Ed and Mary Lou, who clearly just saw it as part of the whole great tradition - to jump in when you have a chance. And look at what they did with that floating bottle.
I also think of one of my favorite movies, "The World According to Garp." Jenny Fields tells her son Garp that life "really has been an adventure." Yes, sometimes life means cleaning your room, or doing homework, or going to the dentist, or getting up early when that alarm comes on.
But sometimes life is about throwing a bottle in the water - and just watching what happens.
It can really be an adventure.
If you find the Hennesseys' Message in a Bottle, please forward it along. Lauri Hennessey is the mother of three who can be reached at Lauri@hennesseypr.com
