No Fear Explorer

When we age, why do we tend to become more fearful, less outgoing?

When I lived in Ohio, I ventured and explored places on my own.  Not to say i was the kind who threw caution t the wind, but I meandered many of the hiking trails on my own, sometimes for hours at a time. 

I did much of the same the first few years I lived in AZ, visiting cities and parks all over, learning about this wonderful, diverse desert space.

Lately, I'm happy that I make it out of bed, or maybe my daily walk in the neighborhood. 

How does this happen? On purpose? Or is it a gradual slide into this life that grows smaller?  And can we change it?

I try. I go places when I can, but lately I haven't been doing enough of it.  I need to try harder. 

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!