Did you take a walk last week?
I ask this because the focus of my newsletter last Wednesday was the decision Tim and I made to forego buying a vehicle the two years we lived in Oxford. The beauty of not having a car those years is that we walked almost everywhere. We found ourselves walking the streets of Oxford and noticing things we might have been too busy to notice otherwise.
We found ourselves walking the English countryside on a Saturday morning, rather than running to Costco for one more mega item we didn’t really need. We were strategic in planning our trips into city center, creating more margin for rest in our days. We loved the simplicity of life without a car.
But what are we doing now that we are back in the United States?
Charlotte, NC does not have the stellar bus system that Oxford had. When we moved back to the United States from Oxford, Tim and I were determined that we were going to do our best to keep life simple. Part of that plan includes being aware of how much precious time is wasted in a car.
We have a clear purpose and vision for our family this time around and it does not involve living a life that we are all driven to. Our life is first and foremost found within the walls of our home. The danger of always being in a car, other than the obvious, is that we may start to think this alone is our real life.
We want the pixies to understand that home is the center of their life. I don’t want my girls to grow up believing that real life begins once they step outside their front door. Within the walls of their home is the abundant life that nourishes their spirits.
Susan Schaeffer Macaulay lays it all out on the table in her book For The Family’s Sake, stressing the importance of home in one’s everyday life. She writes,
“Many families now only plan for a ‘life’ that a child has to be driven to. They are ignorant of home-grown activities. After school children may go back into the van, be restrained, and be driven (already weary) to an organized activity. Although in itself the activity could be interesting or good, on top of the day at school, the child has less and less of his or her own time free from being organized. Children can thus lead lives that are as stressful as an executive’s.”
It is ok for my girls to be bored (although I will say this rarely happens now that we’ve made home the epicenter. There is far too much to interest their inquisitive minds). They soon find themselves creating imaginary worlds with characters called “poison ivy” and run outside to create forts in the woods with their friends. Even my fourteen year old finds the make-believe town complete with mayor, judge, and chief of police a world too inviting to ignore.
This is a good thing. I want my pixies to have the time at home to explore and discover these imaginary worlds. If we were so busy running from one activity to the next, they wouldn’t have the margin to explore the worlds of their imagination.
At home around the kitchen table, I watch them cut an apple and sit down around the table telling ridiculous jokes. I find them outside hanging upside down from the limbs of trees, giggling with friends.
It is a beautiful thing.
Friends, we are the ones living life. Let’s not every forget this. And this real life happens within the walls of our homes. I don’t want to be so busy rushing about in our car that we miss the precious moments that unfold within our own four walls.
May we remember the deadly power of rushing about. Take time today to think about how your children view home: is it where “real life” occurs? Let’s not add another activity to our list, just because we can. Life begins within the walls of our homes.
My prayer is that more families would find this to be true in their homes. How correct you are when you said about the rush to get to the next activity. I love seeing a family that enjoys the company of one another. I have witnessed that with yours, what a blessing.