Recently in church, the pastor spoke about how different the world of today is for children. How children don't play outside, how they only have friends on the internet and have no personal relationships, how both parents often work and often leave children to raise themselves as latchkey kids. It was then that I truly appreciated where we are. Our houses are pretty close together...not as close as houses are in Queens where I grew up, but close enough for children to be able to arrange play organically by calling for one another. We have a playground across the street. We live with a dead end at the terminus of the park where the children love to play and can do so safely. We are up against state land with fields, woods, and a creek. This provides for plenty of exploration opportunities, more safe places to play, and interaction with all sorts of wildlife and nature. Most houses have front porches where people sit and talk, and where the children play. Most mothers are home, so when the children are home and playing, there is always someone with an eye on them. In some ways, I suppose we're in a bit of a lost world where time has stood still. People wave to one another while they drive by, stop to talk as they walk by, and parents know one another and one another's children. I'm really grateful to be where we are, and am so glad that God knew exactly where we should be...where our children could thrive...where they could be children.
Watching a solar eclipse, playing in the pool, pretending to use a leaf blower, discovering a blue bird nest
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