Reflection

I remember the days of my childhood.  Like everyone else in the world I remember MY perception of the world and my life, but that is really WHO I am.  That is what made me ....ME!!!  There were times when other's opinions shaped my actions and my decisions, but in the end, it was my own perceptions that formed who I am inside.

As I grew up in a small, rural Nebraska town, I remember playing outside with all the neighborhood children on a warm summer night.  We played "cowboys and indians"; "hide and seek"; "tag"; "annie over"; riding bicycles and alot of screaming and laughing!!  While the children were busy the mother's sat in one yard on their lawn chairs or the steps to the house and talked about cooking; cleaning; their husbands; and their children.  Everyone knew everyone in the town and we were all more like one big family than separate families.  Everyone waved as they went by and some pulled over to the curb to ask a question, comment on the weather, or talk about the latest crisis within the "family".

The father's played cards on a card table hastily constructed in the driveway or often played games of horseshoe at the curb. (The space between the curb and the highway was dirt.)

As the sun set and the street lights started to come on..the father's put up their horseshoe games and grabbed their card table and the mother's lawn chair and headed home.  The mother's said good bye to their friends and yelled at their children.  The children reluctantly left their games and headed to their homes, knowing that the bathtub was waiting!!

It was a quiet time.....a time of friendship and family.  A slow time when people rested after a day of work and enjoyed each other (not the tv set).  Everyone sat at the supper table and reviewed the day.  In our family their was no negative comments....but positive events and support were relayed to all family members. 

I have, through out my life, tried to recreate those days and those feelings with no success.  It seems that the energies of those days have disappeared and the energies of "today" are here to stay.  That saddens me...because I have no way to express to my grandchildren what a "better" life was.  They have never been without the tv, the internet, cell phones, ipods, ipads, mp3 players, video games, and using your imaginations.

Makes me wonder what perceptions they will remember?  What will form WHO they are?