This Is What They Love

On a rainy Saturday morning about three weeks ago, Clay and Cole woke us up at 5:30am to say they were headed out to the pond for duck hunting. They had gotten up half an hour or so before that…not even a hint of daylight in the sky…packed their gear and were ready to roll. I turned over in bed, so happy to be right there where it was warm and dry and I could hear the rain falling all around. Drifting back to sleep, I thought to myself, “This is what they love.”

Yesterday afternoon, Cole jumped in the car at the end of school. “Mom, I’m going to jump shoot the pond! Come with me!” The next minutes of the drive between school and home were spent studying fields and ponds between the two places…talking waterfowl species…practicing each of the 4 duck calls hanging from around his neck. The little brother sat in back, listening as the big one spoke and taking it all in. As I listened, I thought to myself,
“This is what they love.”

Looking back about 10 years, I began shuttling around a sweet little blonde haired, blue eyed boy and his baby brother…off to indoor soccer and outdoor soccer, story time at the library, horse riding lessons, then tae-kwon-do and t-ball. In a few years, I’d add some cooking, swim, and piano lessons…up a league from t-ball to baseball…don’t forget basketball, too. The list gets longer. As each of the 3 little ones grew, so did their minds, and their likes and dislikes. One day I finally paid attention to the talk from the back seat. As we drove all over the place, I asked myself, “Is this what they love?”

So I took Cole up on his jump shooting invitation. He talked, then whispered…a mile a minute…as we approached the pond. I pretended to listen, but this is what was running through my head – Why would I spend time coercing and convincing these young ones to love what they don’t? I don’t feel too shoved in any direction to do what’s going on around me…but this thing just sucked me in. This thought that my kids need to do everything, and that what they’re going to get apart from home is somehow better than what they’re going to get at home. Thank you, God, for prodding me out to this pond today, to be part of what they enjoy that I’ve had no part in pushing them to do.

At the point where I started to listen again, Cole had me climbing through barbed wire and directed my steps for the rest of our time at the pond. I followed and watched every move…my 10 year old grown up right before my eyes as he led with confidence…my 6 year old following intently and learning from his best friend.

What a priceless piece of time. Just to be there at that moment, knowing that this is what they love.