Nostalgia...

Sometimes I get nostalgic over things that I've never actually experienced. For example, I think a lot about getting back to the "good ol' days," having a house with a great big front porch where we sit rocking and drinking lemonade at dusk with friends and family--the 100 year old trees anchored in the yard, branches shading the dirt and gravel driveway. You've all seen this scene in movies. I think about how peaceful it would be to have a bed on the front porch and sleep out there on summer evenings. Silliness. Because, in all reality, the folks that did those sorts of things years ago probably did so out of necessity. It was probably hot as blazes in the second story and they went outside to get a little relief from their non-air-conditioned house.

A teacher at our church reflected the other day about how "the back deck has replaced the front porch" and it got me thinking about what we DO have. I've never had a big front porch, but we do have a pretty nice back deck. On these recent Spring evenings, you can find our bunch out there quite a bit. Eating ice cream cones at dusk, playing tee ball in the yard, inspecting our recently planted flowers for new buds, listening to the bamboo windchimes, looking for stars, tracking airplanes in the sky, watching the sun set just over the tops of the trees to the West all with the cheerful voices of our babies echoing into the night sky. So, I think it's time that maybe I pack away the wishes for the "good ol' days" of front porch rocking and lemonade and I start embracing and investing in what will be our family memories long after these days are gone.