Heavy Loads and an Orchard Walk

On very sleepy mornings it is good to have a cup of coffee... Ha ha! It's always good to have a cup of coffee in the morning.

The impending arrival three small children drew me from my slumber this morning. I hopped in and out of the shower just in time. Children don't like to sit around, even if grandmothers do, so well before noon we pulled on our shoes and headed out into the orchard for a walk.

We didn't take a shortcut this time. We walked from the back yard through the Fox's orchard and into Mr. Orbaker's. We looked for treasure along the way; rocks, beer bottles, and dandelions. I chose to collect photographs.

There was plenty of com- petition along the way, a bit of swash- buckling and a little yelling for me to "wait up!" I reminded them several times to stay out of the puddles, although a piece of me wanted to let them forge each one...

Two children collected dandelions on the way along with an empty bottle to carry them in. This was a rare sweet moment between 3 and 4 (grandchild numbers) who are typically in constant battle.

At the beginning of our walk number 2 picked up a big stone. He planned to paint an alligator on it and toted it along for a ways. I suggested he leave it along the road and pick it up on the way back, but he insisted on taking it along. About halfway into our walk he finally gave up and dropped it. He picked it up when we circled back but since he had already lugged it a long distance on our way out, he had a long way to carry it back again.

We weren't too far from home when this child said to me, "This has been a frustrating and heavy walk."

"No wonder," I thought to myself, "You've been carrying a heavy and unnecessary load."

And isn't that just the way? Thankfully, he gave up on the piece of wood and lightened his load just a little bit before continuing on.