And Along the Way to Our Destination

Well it is September yet again & you know what that means! “Don’t say it” you may be thinking.  Okay, let’s get it out…return to school time.  You probably know someone who has returned recently to school.  Perhaps it is you yourself who has begun a new academic year either as a student or a teacher.

As I have shared with you before, we are raising 3 sons.  It is loud at our home & it is at times very chaotic.  The first week of school is generally amongst the most chaotic times of the year at our place.  When you layer on that 2 out of 3 of our sons had zero desire to return to school, it becomes a wee bit more chaotic as they were not motivated to assist much in getting organized for the new school year.   It must be time for a little humourous aside.  When our middle son was in junior kindergarten, he was extremely nervous about going to school for the first time.  Brian is by nature a profoundly cautious person.  The unknown elements of going to school had him turning himself inside out for the better half of August of 2008.  Finally, the first day arrived.  Off we went to meet his teacher & get him settled in for the afternoon of his first day of school.  His teacher was such an angel of compassion.  At one point in the day, she called me & let me know how Brian’s day was going.  She told me that he had some tears & that she just asked him to sit on her knee in the rocking chair & she placed her arms around him & told him that everything was going to be okay.  At dismissal time that day, little Brian raced into my arms & described his day & placed in my hands a picture that he had created with such accomplishment.  He excitedly told me that he had drawn the outline of his own hand “all by myself” & “coloured it in with no help at all!”  Of course my heart melted instantly to see his artwork & the poem below it based upon the story, “The Kissing Hand.”  I can still vividly remember the tears freely touching my face after I tucked him in that night as I hung up that picture.  The picture is to this day hanging in our kitchen & shall remain there as long as there is breath in me. 

Isn’t it a mystery in life when something does not immediately make sense? The next morning, I went into Brian’s room to awaken him for day 2 of his “kindergarten career.”  Brian stirred & simply stated that he was not getting up.  He must have gotten that stubborn streak from my husband!  I am laughing as I write that because if he inherited that trait, it is from his Mom.  The great thing is that we can choose to convert something like stubbornness into other attributes like steadfastness or devotion or dedication or commitment or determination so it can be a good thing.  Anyhow, I confirmed with Brian that he had had a fun day the day before.  “Yes I did”, he answered.  Hmmm, now I was scratching my head so to speak.  I asked him why then he would not want to return again to have some more fun.  Brian in his always logical way simply stated, “I went to kindergarten yesterday so I am all done going to school.”  He had thought that going to school was somehow a 1 day event & now he was done with that & could check that off the list & move onto something else.  He had that experience so he was done with it.  It made me laugh.  He did by the way finally get up for school & has been getting up since realizing that his school days were still very much ahead of him.

There are things in life that we don’t want to do wouldn’t you agree?  The important “things” are the ones that despite not wanting to do them, we “reason” with ourselves & do them anyways.  Our decision may be based upon the “risk /reward” system.   In other words, at times, the consequence of not doing the thing that we don’t want to do outweigh the undesired activity so we do it.  Other times, the “good” that will come out of doing the undesired activity motivates us to push past our first impulse to not do something that we need to do.  Physical exercise is a neat example of both the “risk” & the “reward” of doing something that at times we don’t “feel” like doing.  Is it easy to make an excuse & not do daily exercise?  You bet it is!  Here’s the thing though that I have experienced & that is that I have never ever regretted exercising once I am doing it.  Do I usually “feel like” exercising?  No, I honestly can tell you that my mind comes up with an endless list of excuses & reasons not to exercise almost every day.  Do I listen to those thoughts?  No way!  Instead, I choose to challenge those thoughts at the very least on the basis of logic.  And then, I make myself go out for the exercise.  And it feels great once I am doing it.   Not everyone has this challenge I realize & I admire that.  Some folks are very devoted & enthusiastic about exercise & don’t need to make themselves do the exercise.  They just go do it versus my “argument with myself” routine.  Everyone is a beautiful original so I don’t “beat myself up” over my natural state of having to make myself go for the exercise versus it being a natural state.  Instead, I feel happy that I went no matter what the process was behind me participating in it.

This morning was day 3 of the return to school for this year for our sons.  Getting up early in the morning for them is a challenge like most folks out there young or older.  Once they have been up & ready to go out the door in the mornings this week, they have automatically headed towards the car with the expectation that they would receive a drive over to school.  Not so fast guys!  It has been absolutely gorgeous out weather-wise this week & so they could not even present a case for needing a ride due to inclement weather.  Each morning, I have let the boys know that we would be walking to school.  The moans that 2 out of 3 of the boys have had each morning would cause a person to believe that they were being asked to break boulders by hand at a gravel pit!  Yikes!  To say that they have resisted the “invitation” to walk to school is an understatement.  In the spirit of not taking no for an answer, the boys have come to realize that the walking to school this week have not been optional.  The best part is that once we are no more than half way to school, the boys are very cheerful about the walk. 

An even better “consequence” of the morning walks to school is that along the way to the destination, we happened upon 2 other children that we had never met before that go to the same school.  The new friends & our two younger sons hit is off immediately & have become fast friends.  This morning, the new friends were all dressed & ready to go with backpacks on waiting on their front lawns for us to “pick them up” this morning.  I smiled at our sons & said, “hey, it’s a good job we did not drive because your friends may have been late for school!”  We all laughed.  And I too have made 2 new friends in their parents.  I am kind of a kid at heart in many ways & get that excited feeling making new friends too.  So, the boys & I have not really felt like walking yet there has been no down side.  We have after all enjoyed the great physical feeling of taking care of our bodies by giving them exercise & the added bonus of making new friends.

My heart’s hope for you is that “along the way to your destination” that you do something health building for yourself that you may not “feel like” doing & make some friends along the way!

Smiles, Saundie :)

May all the paths you walk be filled with friends along the way & next Monday's sharing is, "Although it's Not Pudding, It is Proof."    :)