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As I opened my eyes from sleep early one morning, immediately, a smile covered my heart. A dear friend and her daughter were training to visit me from London, while I lived in Oxford, to explore a food fair near my house. Happy to my toes to be with sweet friends and to make memories together was just the best anticipation to paint my day with delight.
Even taking this photo was a sweet memory—Ice cream—across from the French Cafe with wonderful cheeses and bites to savor. Creating fun and cultivating advanture has carried us through many a lonely season of life.
“Just think of all the people yet to be known, the places yet to explore, the delectable tastes waiting for us to enjoy!” So one of my sweet ones said one early one morning as we ventured out into the wide world.
Living in Oxford suited me because there was a new delight every day, a story to imagine, and I purposed to enjoy every minute, every day, every new friend—even the Ice cream truck! :) Part of the fun comes from a heart ready to enjoy life—a commitment that brings great pleasure.
What do you miss the most right now? What is the first thing you will do when we are back to normal schedules and are free to do what we want?
How delighted I was to have the opportunity to have a conversation with Gretta Eskridge about her new book, Adventuring Together. Her vibrant life is filled with ideas of how to explore the wide world with our family and friends.
Maybe it is personality. Maybe it is just boredom, But one of the things I miss most right now is travel, adventure! Since I moved overseas over 40 years ago, I have been traveling, advanturing, creating fun and enjoying life with my sweet ones. It has ended up being such a great legacy for all of us. Our worlds have been broadened, our values have been stretched, our tastes have been widened, and our understanding for all sorts of people has been enlarged.
We are always in the midst of planning the next trip or adventure. The world gives limitless possibilities for places to discover, people to meet, experiences to have. Moving 19 times, 7 times internationally shaped some of our values and loves. (Of course, I would give anything to go visit my sweet grandchildren and Sarah and Thomas.)
Recently, a friend and I had a long phone call remembering a legacy we left our children that came about almost by chance. We had piled our seven children into her suburban several years in a row when our husbands were working and traveled together over many parts of the United States. Most of our time, we stayed in the homes of generous families that we had met online and we look back now and realize that it gave our children first hand experiences at seeing historical heroes from a more personal point of view. And we made great friends with those we met along the way.
Our trip was so deeply rewarding, a sweet time of friendships for all of us, and mind and soul expanding, that we did it several more times through the years. We so enjoyed reading about historical heroes and then seeing their homes, walking through the rooms where they had lived courageous stories and expanding all of our souls with inspirational knowledge. I realize that not all people are able to arrange this sort of trip, but there are so many creative ways we can experience and see the lives of others in an authentic way.
Is traveling with your children part of your family culture? Seeing, handling, touching, acting out, experiencing, reading outloud---these are the live experiences that made history feel real for our family. Since my children were very little, I purposed to plan ways they could really experience what we studied.
Because we still worked with many overseas, missions was not just be a story that someone else lived and we only read about. I wanted my children to experience being in a foreign country and eating foreign food and hearing a foreign language, while seeing the great needs of others. Seeing the needs of others created thankfulness for what we had in our own home.
Of course, we can be on mission in our own countries, too. Serving in a soup kitchen or babysitting at a center for battered women makes needs more real, because children get to put a name to a face that they can pray for. Seeing how blessed we are as Americans is important, but when a child sees homeless or hungry children, they have a whole new understanding of poverty.
For this reason, since my oldest children were very small, I intentionally planned and purposed to give them real life experiences so they could have a more realistic understanding of those we studied. It is why we have been such travelers. Reading about historical figures is inspiring, but seeing places they lived or cities they built or where their battles were fought gives everyone a more realistic, concrete understanding of the ways of life, physical limitations, difficulties and also blessings of the people they have been reading about.
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