Doug and I had dinner with our grandchildren as their folks went out to celebrate their eighth anniversary. Before dinner they took a dip in the pool, and then we settled down to enjoy Maryland barbecued chicken from a local restaurant. (Hey, I am still on vacation even when I am on duty!)
How to fill the time before bedtime with fun, considering the huge dissimilarity in our years and abilities?
A walk!
Off we went, the youngest, content in a stroller, the other happily skipping ahead, eager to show us where they took swimming lessons. My hips tried complaining about moving after too many days off – but they finally quieted down, and worked! Ten years ago, it rarely crossed my mind to be grateful for just being able to walk. This year has been quite a tutor in gratitude. Anyway, I took this neighborhood circuit for ten years before we left for Texas. I know the houses and their streets. But walking with a five year old and a three year old, I saw many things I hadn’t noticed -- like which house had a pretty lamp in the window; which house had funny stripes (siding); which house had small red roses and Black-eyed Susans.
The walk took longer than it ever has – and doubtless doesn’t count as a cardio-vascular workout. But the treasures gleaned – on an early evening in a late July are inestimable.
- You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them. ~Desmond Tutu
- Grandchildren are God's way of compensating us for growing old. ~Mary H. Waldrip
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