Ah, Being a kid! We all have great memories of the good old days. Growing up on a farm in the Midwest, I have many memories of catching my horse in the pasture amongst a herd of Angus cattle. Better yet, spending HOURS hiding a halter behind my back, so he didn’t run from me. By the time I finally caught him, I had been through a series of so many emotions and WOMENTS it was time for a long ride to make the catch worthwhile. I also have two older brothers who added plenty of adventure for their little sister to get into trouble. Repelling down a hay loft from the barn, fighting over who would get to be behind the wheel of the 4020 John Deere tractor, cat fishing off the river bank, pretending to be a jockey riding the horse bareback, struggling to make the best tractor sound…I never did get it right! To a farm kid, this was a normal summer day.
In the height of a global pandemic and seeing the adventures my own kids are having, it’s making me rethink the phrase “when things get back to normal”. Was it really that normal before CoVid? Sure, we all need human interaction, we need to get out, be involved in our community, go to a restaurant once in a while…the chef needs a break! But was running from activity to activity, driving 50 miles or more every day, stressed out kids, stressed out parents, complete exhaustion, no time for the outdoors, being glued to computers and phones, no time for a phone call, and no time to take a WOMENT normal? God has a funny way of bringing things to light. For me, I’m starting to think what we were calling “normal” wasn’t so normal after all. It wasn’t until I let my six-year-old boys go by themselves to a muddy creek to see what they found bring all of those memories back to me. If we hadn’t been home, had the time to be together, or just let our kids get a little “bored” once in a while, they would have never had the adventure they had and brought home their pet frog Obi Wan Kenobi, later to be named Leia. Having time for adventure again, that’s a WOMENT.
