This morning Audrey and I were headed out the door for school drop-off (her) and an ear appointment (me) and as we shuffled towards the door, both girls started yelling to one another “I’ll miss you! Have fun! But I’ll really miss you,” and I both loved it and hated it. Barry was taking Maggie to school before he headed to work, and the divide and conquer mantra seemed to work best. The girls had been playing a game together, some rendition of chasing and pulling a little play toy up and down the hallway. They’d done it right up until bed time and started up again right after waking up.
By 9’oclock in the morning everybody had been delivered to their rightful destination, and we’ll gather again tonight around the dinner table, eventually moving towards bed just to start it all over again. I knew, I just knew, that this is what Autumn would feel like. We’ve said yes to lots of fun things, but man, I miss just being all together. Doing nothing.
In the middle of our month in New Zealand, we spent ten days on a working farm. All there was to look at were the rolling hills on the other side of our pasture and the only people to engage with were each other. Strange enough, there werent’ tantrums, crying or even missing. We just were there and it was simple enough because there was literally nothing to worry about, just sitting on the edge of the world felt good.
Now, I know myself well enough to know that I’d be a horrible homesteader. I like lots of comforts of the modern day and I’m not overly excited about trying to live off the land. But I also know myself well enough to recognize that when the rest of the world falls away and it’s just me with my family, I’m incredibly happy. Like blissfully so.
In the current world where we’re actually having a conversation about a grown man bragging about groping women’s private parts, and gun violence is real, I so badly wish that could slip into homesteading and making my own bread and butter. I want to gather up my own chickens (read: babies) and teach them to listen to crashing waves and blowing wind to find answers, and ignore the banter of people lacking character…..Rolling hills of New Zealand seem so far away, and they are, but I’m thinking that guarding that time for game playing is essential.