Life Is A Riverboat...

for the last few days i have caught myself stopping and grabbing the life being lived out in front of me and tucking it away in the my heart. i told my sweet Mama-in-law just the other day what a fantastic and FUN season of life this is right now with our kids. everyone seems, *sigh* so old. i stand at the kitchen sink and listen to the four of them chatter away over lunch. from my lazy, lounging, life guard chair i can peer over my juicy novel and watch them splash themselves silly in the pool for hours. and every night without fail i can walk into their rooms while they are passed out from the summer sun and gently kiss all over their super grown up faces. i am not sure what has me super reflective and emotional these days, (no zach i am NOT pregnant!) i guess more than ever i realize how quickly these days, months, and years are slipping through my fingers.

i desperately desire, and am full out determined to ENJOY my kids. not just in a long suffering, sticking it out kind of way (although, those days DO happen) but i want to look back at this season without regret knowing i have poured my very being into my kids.

at the top of my "what i want for my kids" list is..
i want them to appreciate words. whether it's reading them, writing them, expressing themselves verbally with them, or a super great ability to listen to someone else's words and value them. this year in particular i have seen katie's love for words take flight to a whole other level. the girl reads like mad... but recently she has been writing, and obviously coming from a heart that LOVES to write i just eat up everything the girl produces. this week i found this wonderfully, original quote with an added picture, by none other than katie.

 

for those who can't read it, it says, "life is a riverboat, don't tip it because you don't get another riverboat."

first of all, what i just adore about this quote is the fact that at 8 years old katie knows that life is a gift. we are guaranteed nothing! the promise of another day here on earth is not a luxury we own. we appreciate that b/c from the beginning of our parenthood journey mark and i knew we had no desire to down play the suffering and realities of this life. we talk openly and honestly about illnesses, death, miscarriages, abortion, murder, cancer, alzheimer's, kidnapping, divorce,  etc..etc.. some might think that's cruel and unkind, but we think it's just another step in preparing our kids for real life, with real broken people, with real hurt, real circumstances that should cause us to respond with real love.

second of all, i love that katie understands personal responsibility and the seriousness and finality of the decisions we make and the consequences we receive. not because we are victims, or we've been overlooked, or our luck ran out, simply she understands, "to every action there is always an equal and

opposite reaction" (newton's third law of motion...*snort, snort, an engineers wife*).

we live in a generation of people who are tipping their riverboats and blaming everyone but themselves. we live in a generation of people covering up the holes in their boats that are full of hurt, heart ache, depression, and hopelessness, and plugging it with anything and everything they think will stop the drainage of sadness. we live in a generation of people who don't even realize they are on a riverboat! ;)

people you have bee given ONE riverboat... stop tipping it and get to paddling!!
~s