Memories That Bring Us Home

Summer. Some of the best memories children remember are made during the nostalgic, hot, summers of their youth.

Last month when I had to cancel our trip to Colorado to go to Oklahoma, I was so disappointed. Not for myself, I have been many times ..... but for Sam. He was so looking forward to going, to seeing "real" mountains and the top of Pikes Peak where America the Beautiful was written. I felt like I had done him a disservice when our plans changed.

Now that we're home and have fallen back into our summer routine, it's feels good to finally enjoy our time off. An unspoken ritual happens every night, and this evening, I watched closely, this child I had been feeling I had let down. I went outside after supper, to water the garden, just like every night. Like clock work, Cowboy came hopping and skipping not far behind, taking his usual, habitual path ..... first by the blackberry bush for a little snack, a hop, hop, hop on top of the big rocks, up the hill and to the strawberry patch that's conveniently located right by the pond. After he hunts and picks the good strawberries, he stripped down to his skivvies and into the pond he jumped!

I smiled, to see such contentment and joy the simple things of this life can bring. I am thankful for a child who can grow up with them and appreciate them, knowing he helped put in the strawberry patch he picks from, and the tomatoes and banana peppers he loves so much, grow because he helped prepare the ground.

I started to think of my own childhood summers, and as I went back, the memories were not of summer vacations and youth camps, but my fondest memories were swimming in that nasty water at Fulton Beach, riding my bike to get a snow cone, running barefooted on the blacktop, desperately searching for a patch of grass to land in and hoping it didn't have stickers. Those are the memories that make me of think of home.

So tonight, I've realized, I'm not doing that bad at all. Yes, I still want to take Cowboy to Colorado, and there's a million other things I want to do with him. But his memories will be the adventures we have right here, in our own back yard. Hot, sticky nights, battling mosquitoes and critters, so he can sleep with his pup in his tent, eating the fruits of his labor, the pond where he truly learned to swim, splashing in the creek, and running free on HIS mountain, with his faithful dogs. These are things he will remember, these are the memories that will bring him home. And isn't that what every parent wants?