Before the college kids boarded their plane last weekend to head back to campus, we had time for a quick hike through the regional park. (They now are in Washington, DC, for the March for Life - having spent all of 5 days on campus before leaving again.) We covered five or six miles in about 3 hours - the terrain was rocky and up and down. Our elevation gain may not have been much over all, but we had some pretty steep climbs - no switchbacks for the weak. The three year old started out on my back, and then she took a turn on her oldest brother's back and then she decided she wanted to walk herself. And walk she did. She is a good little hiker, happy to be in the company of her big brothers, the kind of big, scruffy, intimidating beings who would have scared me to death at her age. I think they enjoyed being out in the sun in shirt sleeves before heading back to the arctic blast of their midwestern campus. These boys have come into their own as young adults. They no longer have to be encouraged to get outside and do things. They have ideas and prospects and a big wide future ahead of them. I sometimes don't feel like I'm my age, but when I see them, these young adults, I realize how much life I have lived. A friend, a younger mom who moved here last summer after the boys had gone to college, commented the other day after church how surprised she was to see that our kids are men. Maybe that means I talk about them like they are children, maybe because I talk about their childhood to other moms sometimes. Nearly a generation separates the oldest and youngest. But some of our happiest times together lately are spent watching them together. It is especially happy when they are sharing with her their pleasure in spending a day under a deep blue sky.
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| Letting the little lady lead the way |
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| Gummy break |
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| City skyline on the horizon |
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| Following the creek - a recent rain had left behind running water in the bed - not always the case |
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| Breaking in the knees of her new Christmas clothes |
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| A few hours of rain brings the hills back to life. |
1 comment:
A lovely post. I wouldn't know about your real-time conversations, but i know that in your blog posts your mother's concern for her children's souls, no matter what their age, is at the forefront, slanting the emphasis to the "negative," those things one might be anxious for. So when you put up pictures of their wholesome smiling faces -- not when they are with their friends but on family outings!! -- I am always comforted to see their souls' health reflected.
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