One Grandpa no problem
I spent much of the summer with my sister and her children. One day last summer my sister Emily and I took our kids on a small hike in Penryn. We walked on our old street from the bus stop up the hill to our old house. The sweeping vista was only more beautiful than I had remembered it. My sister and I throughly enjoyed each peice of the nature that we grew up with--the sound of the gurgling water of the irrigation ditch, the quiet of the countryside, the smell of starthistle. our children tried to enjoy it with us. Their first distraction was the dogs. Dogs in Penryn aren’t tied up or behind fences and they aren’t always nice. We told them not to worry and gave them Penryn Dog Safety 101. 1 if a dog barks, don’t look scared and don’t ever run. Face it and look it in the eyes. Stop to assess if it is going to come near. Command it to go, pick up a stick and brandish it, bend down to pretend like your are going to pick up a rock to throw at it, and if the dog still doesn’t stop, pick up a rock and throw it at it as hard as you can. Then we started to climb the hill. They thought the hike from the bus stop up to our house was too steep. We showed them the trick of when your legs got tired to turn around and walk backwards because it uses different muscles. Then we got to the part of the walk were there was a small trail over grown with a nasty weed with thorns called starthistle. At this point they were in tears again and totally paralyzed. We showed them how to step on the root of the weed to push it out of your way. Near the top of the hill I mentioned that we had to be careful for snakes and to keep your eyes alert. At this point I remember the questioning look of the oldest. She didn’t want to complain, but she seemed about why we would put her in this awful situation with all of these perils. I thought about it and reflected on how overwhelming all that we had taught her in the last half hour might make it so that she couldn’t enjoy the lovely natural world around her. Her mind was consumed with the new rules and information so much that she couldn’t enjoy it. I remembered the first time I was mature enough to understand the dangers of snakes. I lamented that I would never enjoy hiking again because I always had to be on the lookout for snakes. I love hiking. Looking for snakes has become second nature to me so much that I don’t have to focus on it anymore. I can enjoy hiking. There is no nature without the hard parts. But don’t be discouraged. All of these coping skills can seem overwhelming now, but they will become second nature to you and you will be able to shoulder that burden with ease and be able to enjoy nature again.
Being a parent can feel totally overwhelming. There is so much that is so hard and unpleasant, but there is no way around those difficult tasks. Just like in nature, if you would have the vista, you have to hike. We can’t find a path that doesn’t have difficulty. We learn to shoulder the difficultly and
My dad has learned to shoulder the difficulty and enjoy what is good.
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