Lessons From the Green Rocking Chair

Barbara Johnson penned these words:  "Yesterday is a sacred room in your heart where you keep your memories...From your yesterdays you draw lessons and encouragement to pass along to others."

Yesterday afternoon I spent some relaxing time in a bright green wooden rocking chair in McBee, SC. From the green rocker, I watched brightly colored butterflies lighting on orange and yellow lantana blooms. The butterflies appeared to be playing and having a jubilant time. Remembering those playful butterflies makes me wonder when most adults stop playing. And, why do we stop playing? Is playing considered to be trivial, undignified, and unworthy of our time when we reach adulthood?

My mind travels back in time to when I was a child. As the dusk settled in, we would chase "lightening bugs" and would place them in a jar that had air holes punched by our mama in the metal lid. Collecting those lightening bugs was our way of making our own live blinking flashlight. We would play "chase", hide and seek, and jump rope. And, there was always a bicycle to ride or a basketball to shoot in the goal that was attached to a tree in the backyard. You would never hear one of us saying that we were bored. 

As I rocked rhythmically in the bright green wooden rocking chair, I was moving back and forth without going anywhere. As I ponder that, I wonder who came up with the "rule" that we must always be moving in order to reach a destination in a big hurry. While rocking, I had a most pleasant conversation with a silver-haired lady from Georgia. As we rocked in unison, the only thing I knew positively that we had in common was our preference for butter pecan ice cream. While the weight loss programs would surely frown on the fact that she was finishing off her friend's ice cream cone after consuming her own, I loved her philosophy of not letting good things in life go to waste, especially when it is homemade butter pecan ice cream!

On this day, I want to be a child. Not childish, but child-like. I took a first step toward that goal by trying chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream on top today instead of the boring adult variety that I usually have.

I love Steven James' thoughts about being child-like: "Set loose my awe and my squirrelly playfulness... Let me be young enough to run, not walk, toward the playground...Let me be young enough to make snow angels and climb trees in the twilight....to be astonished by dandelions and quick to chase fireflies."

Lord, make me more child-like, and restore a jubilant, playful spirit in me. Thank you for allowing me to slow down enough to see life lessons from the bright green wooden rocking chair.