Our Favorite Pastime: Being Outside

Those of you who know us well know that we spend a lot of time outside.  Our children will play outside as long as you will let them and if they don't have their conventional toys, they create their own games and fun.  We have gone through several stages here in CA.  While soccer and football get played everyday as well as brushing and playing with the horses, other games have come and gone in popularity.  First it was Bocci ball, then it was finding all of Doc's (the dog) toys and playing hide and seek with them, then fishing in the pond (pretend), then we migrated to playing hide and seek, with people this time, then the little boys pretended to be horses in the pasture and got the horses involved in chase; then they divided the gardens into sections.  Each section was named after a town or community in the Bay Area.  They even had paths that had street names.  Finally what has become most popular is following Tio and Christian around constantly and doing what they are doing.  I am amazed at their constant willingness to talk with, play with, and teach the children, from Spanish to gardening at such an easy pace.  We could do well to learn from this.  Instead of living like a tornado is all around us and rushing around constantly, I think about the simplicity of their lives here and long to incorporate more of that way of living in our lives.  These are the things I think about as I walk. 

It has been so fascinating to talk with Tio every day and learn from him.  He has had such an interesting and at times dangerous life.  Amazingly he has lived these past 18 years without his wife (he fled for his life from Gautemala) and 8 children.  Now of course, he has his son Christian here with him but until this time, he had last seen him at the age of 10.  His other son, Oscar, comes occasionally from Oakland to help around here; he would have been 8 years old when his dad left.  The youngest who is now 18 was 15 days old.  This is so hard for me to fathom.  

I have learned so much from Tio, the least of which is the Spanish and the gardening tips that I do hope I can use some day.  He is always available if I need anything and I will certainly miss all of our Spanish to English musings.  I'm convinced that if we were to be here 6 months, we would all (except for Jeff) be pretty fluent in Spanish.  In being in this environment, I have learned more about myself, how we live, how simple life can and should be, how important people really are and relationships, and mostly how important my children are to us.  As we sit on the porch in the evenings that do not darken until almost my bedtime, I relax and enjoy watching our children live in almost a bubble, sheltered from the culture, yet mingling with a different culture.  I see peace, true happiness and joy, and ease.

I'll never forget the morning I was going for my walk and was trying to round everyone up.  This is where I found them, out digging holes.  Scott said, "Go, on, Mom, we've got this!" (That's our favorite line from "Cheaper by the Dozen".)