The Playground

I absolutely love taking the kids to the playground behind their school. I love to watch them run, play, learn and explore. I love seeing as they grow new skills, the increase their hand eye coordination, and having them explore new parts of the playground as they get older. The joy on their faces as they race around the wood chips playing tag and just plain ol' having fun. Eventually comes the time when the fun has to end and we have to go home. I call to them "LAST SLIDE" they groan a little and fight me a little yet they each, in turn, go to the biggest slide, go down and come to me so we can leave. As we walk past the school there is a small hill. I let the kids roll down the hill on the grass as many times as they want before we get to the parking lot. On the walk home we continue the fun as they race from house to house, in anticipation of me stepping on the same block as them so they can shoot to the next driveway. So even though the fun has ended on the playground, we continue to have joy as we head home.

Life is a playground were we all run, learn, play, develop and grow. Sometimes, in life, we have our "last slide". God may not shout out to us when that will happen tho. You never know when will be the last phone call to a friend, the last time you hug your mother, the last time you hold your partners hand. I'm not saying that we should all walk on eggshells waiting for those horrible, inevitable times to come. Just as children playing on the playground, we need to enjoy ourselves in the moments of small joys and amazing triumphs with our friends and family, not in anticipation of our last slide.

What i want to concentrate on is how we choose to walk home. I could walk home with three very crabby children who are all angry that they had to leave the playground. Have them dwelling on their last slide and wishing that they had one more turn. Instead we embrace that we are done and continue with other things that make us happy. Using the time we have now, the walk home, to have fun. We have a choice after our last slide in life how we "walk home" after tragedies. Yes, it is important to acknowledge the pain and the hurt, but eventually you have to continue with your life. How do you choose to "walk home"? Full of pain, anger, regret? Wishing forever that you had just one more slide? Or do you choose to roll down the grassy hill?

When it came to my own personal walk home it took me almost three years to let go of my anger, sadness and pain. It took a lot of therapy, talking and looking deep within myself at who i am. It took a long time for me to understand that a last slide had happened and that i needed to choose how i walk home. I'm glad that i finally chose to roll down the hill in the grass, to race from house to house, and not walk home with regret in my heart wishing for one more slide.