Joy of the Day, Day 18: Strolls and Scooters

Many afternoons, some or all of our family take a walk around our little neighborhood. It’s a grounding time, a resetting time—the sliver that divides the rambling day from the early evening. During our strolls, the conversations are generally easy and reflective, floating without effort from the what ifs to the remember whens to the can you imagines. Because they are a function of the unforeseen confluence of summery weather, of no schedule to speak of and of the regathering of our family under one roof, these walks are special. They are the fleeting, happy result of the most random assortment of circumstances, and I will miss them when they’re gone.

We’ve had our place down here since our kids were pretty small. Sometime during one of our first trips here as a family, we bought a couple razor scooters for the kids to zip around the neighborhood, but as the kids got older and we spent less time together here, the scooters, along with the tiny pink bikes and the Spider-Man helmet and the balls and the rackets and other various childhood equipment fell into disuse, collecting in a sort of sad pile in our garage.

When we arrived here a little over a month ago, I cleaned out the garage and, because at that point the local Goodwill was still open for business, gave away of most of the pile of castoff toys. But the scooters were saved, mostly because Kristin and I thought maybe Braden and Garner might like to ride them here and there.

It’s hard to explain the joy—Kristin and I have talked about it a few times because we share the same feeling—that comes from hearing the rhythmic thudding of that old razor scooter along the sidewalk squares leading up to our back door, as Garner sweeps in daily for lunch after shooting hoops with Braden all morning. And then this sunshiney evening, when it was time to set out on our stroll, Amelia opted for one of the scooters as her vehicle, gliding a wavy path back and forth across the the middle of the empty road ahead of us, breathing new life into that old, forgotten thing.

Today, our stroll and an old blue scooter are my joy. #joyinplace