Let's be 'Life Farmers.'
The tell tale sign that summer is over : the first day of school. As a parent, there is nothing more telling of time passing us by then the start of a new school year. Even more so than celebrating New Years Eve or even birthdays, the start of a new school year signifies life's milestones represented in the lives of our children.
Time flies my friends. It's cliche to say but it does and as my own son enters his junior year of high school, I realized just the other day, that next summer will be his LAST summer home with us before he flies the proverbial coop and graduates high school. Upon realizing this, I felt this a sudden urge to cram in a bunch of activities onto the calendar. Plan that trip. Visit that college. Spend more time together. Repent against my not -so -cool-mom moments that have happened throughout the challenges of parenting. It's like the end of a portion of your life that happens when your kids graduate high school. For me it's like knowing the "end is near." I feel this insatiable need to live out all the dreams I didn't get to manifest with my kids, to plant the seeds I always meant to plant within them to help them grow, to do more with them because my time to have them under my wings is quickly coming to an end.
What's this all have to with travel? Everything. We spend so much money and time investing in our children's lives. We pour money into sports, gadgets, clothes, more gadgets and aside from involvement in sports, all that other stuff doesn't really plant a seed in their life's garden. It becomes money and time poorly spent, yet well-intentioned, in hopes of creating a happier child. Truth be told, spending time with our children and sharing new and thought provoking experiences that will stay with them for the rest of their lives is really the best way to have no regrets in our attempts of growing happy and well-rounded children.
So as I sit here today, in an empty house, reflecting on "where did the time go?" I am challenging myself to do different for the remaining years that my boys are at home. It's not until we are faced with a new situation that we stop to re-evaluate our life. Impending graduation of my first born is a "new situation" for me. For the next couple of years, I'll be a 'life farmer', planting the seeds of wonder and curiosity, sharing new landscapes and cultures with my boys and hope that down the road those seeds grow into what they are intended to grow into. . . just what that will be is yet to be determined by time.
There is no harm that can be done by traveling with your children. You are gifting them ( and you) something so unique and special that can never be undone and it will always be cherished in the deep pockets of your souls.
Travel on "life farmers" . . . plant the seeds, reap the benefits, waste no time.
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