Saturdays

Growing up, Saturdays was "house cleaning day". And yes, us kids were involved. Very involved. As the oldest, it was my job to mow the grass, front and back, with a push mower. Then hose down the driveway along with washing the car.  Mom liked things to be clean. Very clean. 

Then it was on to cleaning our bedrooms.  Sometimes it would be just a general clean, other times it was the deep, organized clean, depending on what was scheduled for Sunday. Besides church. 

Now that the sun rises earlier, I'm not inclined to lounge in bed. So here it is, 815am and I'm dressed and ready to start my day.  There's a baseball game at 1215. I need to stop by mom's house and do my weekly check.  I could do my own chores, but .... kinda boring.  Haha

Childhood routines seem to be somehow embedded in our grown up lives. Or maybe its just the mom I had. Everything was so prim and proper, that you felt like not doing anything or using anything for fear of making a mess, to make next week's chores less intense. 

I was having a convo with my brother, who is 8 years younger, so we had different perspectives. Did Dad notice we were stifling in a "keep clean" schedule, and that prompted him to a) go out and buy a pickup truck without mom knowing and b) a pop up tent trailer?  After that it was camping every weekend.  Our Saturdays were no longer filled with obsessive cleaning, but water slides at Oakwood Lake in Manteca. He didn't remember it that way, but he was the youngest so maybe the cleaning stints weren't always pressed upon him as much.

We still had to do our chores, and that was fine. I'm a believer in kids learning that chores are a part of life, to pitch in. But we were no longer just doing school, chores and church. There were elements of fun as well.  

Dad? If you're listening, thanks for the camping! 

Slow Motion

Life in slow motion, somehow it don't feel real.  Lyrics from "Slow Motion" by David Gray 

As the song moves through its minor chords, it draws me in. 

And sometimes life seems to move in slow motion. When you're stuck waiting. When things seem stuck in limbo. If you've ever been in hospital, time seems to slow to a crawl. 

Yet every minute of every day is measured the same way. But we all feel the movement of time differently. It becomes more obvious as you get older.  There are moments when I wish time would slow.  When I was waiting to get out of high school, I wished time would hurry up.  

But each tick of the clock is just that ... time moving forward. 

I don't want to go back to living life in hyper speed, chasing down kids, getting to work on time, or tracking all those other details.  I also don't want to be sitting in a rocking chair watching life go by. So where's the happy medium?? 

I've always been one who likes routine, a schedule, and now that my time isn't driven by a time clock or school schedules, there's a freedom in being able to choose.  Yes, I still need to do laundry and all those other pesky chores, but I can choose tomorrow instead of today!

Today's walk doesn't need to be a speed walk crammed into 20 or 30 minutes, it can meander all over. Or even be tomorrow.  My choice!! 

No matter what speed you're moving through life in, make sure that you're enjoying the journey!