MY QUIET PLACE
When I got older and could get away from my little brothers and sister I would go out to the big government pound. It was a holding pond that the road workers used when they built the roads in the county I lived in. This was back in the 1030’s when the government used local men to make county improvements. The locals called them government ponds so the name stuck. They also put a lot of gold fish in the ponds to keep the algae down. By the time we lived there the fish were huge some 12 to 15 inches long. My brothers liked to practice catching them, but dad made them throw the big ones back to add to the population. The land in the county was divided into tracks to be sold to farmers. The pond happened to be on the piece of land that my father bought in the mid 1950’s. It was a good quarter mile from the house so it was a great get-a-way place.
I would get a blanket, a sun hat, whatever book I was reading at the time, maybe a snack and go out to the pond alone to read or just think. I had a big imagination and would plan what I thought my future would be like. I enjoyed reading adventure books and could imagine myself going on wonderful treks in faraway lands. I accomplished some of those dreams when I got older. But none as exciting as the ones I dreamed up.
One day I asked mom if I could use her new sun hat to go to the pond. I had a wide brim and flowers around it. I thought it looked elegant and I felt grownup wearing it; mom said, ok just don’t get it dirty. I went out to the pond set down my blanket and started to read; when a big gust of wind grabbed mom’s hat right off my head and blew it out into the pond. I tried to reach it but the wind kept blowing it farther out into the water. I hollered for dad to come help me but he was too far away. What was I going to do? Mom was going to kill me; I had ruined her new hat. We kept a small boat on the bank by the pond but I couldn’t get it into the water by myself. All I could do was run to the house and get someone to help me.
My brothers were in the barn so I told them to help me get the boat in the water. They laughed and said, “You are in trouble now.” We went out to the pond got the boat into the water, rowed out to the hat that was still floating with the brim up so it hadn’t filled with water. But the pretty flowers were all wet and it smelled like pond water. We got back to the shore and got the boat back on the bank and I gathered my stuff up and headed back to the house. By the time I got there after thinking of how much trouble I was in and what mom would say and do, I was in tears.
I apologized over and over, holding out the wilted pond smelling sunhat; I told her she could have my allowance for the rest of the year to buy a new hat. I got a dollar a month for helping clean the milk barn. It would take me the rest of the year to save up enough to by another hat, but I was willing. Mom said, “I haven’t even got to wear that hat yet.” Trying to look upset and not laugh at the same time. She took the hat out to the watering trough and dunked it in the clean water to get the pond smell off the set it in the sun to dry. It never looked as nice as it did when it was new but mom wore it any way.
Next month when Dad went to town to by feed for the cows he bought mom another hat. I got the one that had been blown into the pond. But I still thought it looked elegant even if it was a little droopy around the edges. I wore it when I went to the pond to read and think, but I always made sure it was tied under my chin to keep the wind from blowing it into the water.
When things happen in children’s lives it can be heart breaking to them. It is our reaction to the incident that can help them to understand why things happen and how to fix or accept the situation. Children need understanding adults, weather parents or others to help with grow. You never know that kind word you give might be just what is needed to turn a bad situation to a good one.
PROVERBS 23:23-24
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