Kickin' & Screamin'

Believe it or not, being mid-July, our summer is almost over.  With the hubs and I both being teachers, we return to school unbelievably early, and we’re sadly wrapping up our summer fun.  We decided to take a last minute trip to the mountains this weekend.  We love our north Georgia mountains.  Beautiful hiking trails, rivers, scenery and my favorite…waterfalls.  Super curvy roads that will get you just a tad queasy before you reach your destination.  There’s something magical about the mountains here in Georgia, in that they seem to bring happiness to all who enter.  Something you see a huge amount of is camping, and I’ve always loved to camp, while finding it quite intriguing.  We, as humans, (most of us, anyway) seem to be obsessed with stuff.  We must have a tremendous amount of stuff to make us happy.  We desire large homes, lots of space, and lots of nice, nice stuff.  Yet–there’s a fascination with abiding in a tiny area, camper or tent, in the woods with minimal luxuries, eating food cooked on a campfire, with the possibility of not even having Wi-Fi!  Aren’t humans just the funniest??  I think it’s great.  My mother and I spent many, many weeks camping in the north Georgia mountains.  We had a little Shasta camper with a bright orange stripe down the side.  Of course, this was in the 70’s and 80’s, so the lack of computers, cell phones, and Wi-Fi wasn’t a concern.  As long as we had some good books, crossword puzzles, a deck of cards and our Scrabble board, we were good to go.  Mom would always carry a load of fresh squash, and would light up the little stove inside the camper and fry slices of that squash to simple perfection.  She’d hand them out the little screen door to me, where’d I’d sit and eat them like potato chips.  The entire campground would smell like a country kitchen.

It seems that the laughs and memories made while camping are like none other.  For many years, I had a scar on my left leg that brought me laughter every time I looked at it.  As we were roasting marshmallows, Mom caught her marshmallow on fire, and thought that quickly waving it around in the air would make the flames go out.  Instead, the flames grew bigger, and the marshmallow flew off the end of her stick and landed on my leg.  It certainly wasn’t funny at the time, as I screamed so loud that the people in the next campsite ran over to see if they could assist us….but as my wound healed, it made quite a story.

On our trip this weekend, we visited the Georgia Mountain Fair in Hiawassee.  It was so hot, we literally felt like our faces were melting off.  But the people-watching was simply amazing.  The laughter of people of all ages, as they crawled on to sketchy rides set up in a field, the giggles of children as they threw darts at balloons in hopes of winning a prize, and the sheer joy on the faces of all who were partaking in the funnel cakes and deep fried Oreos.  Though I knew none of them personally, I’m assured that there were people there who had suffered great loss and tragedy, just like my family has, but for a few hours–even while melting in the heat–were having a ball.  It made me wish we could just have “time outs” in life…where everyone has to stop what they are doing and just go to the fair.  Grouchy, mean people who are determined to be miserable would no doubt end up giggling as they spun around and around in the whirly cars, hoping their stomach didn’t lose the huge lump of cotton candy they just devoured.  Yeah, they’d probably go right back to being that grouchy person the next day, but a “time out” might just remind them that there’s still some fun to be had.

One little girl in particular really grabbed my attention, as I stood waiting for my hubs and daughter to take off on a whirly ride.  The ride was circular, and the seats went around and around quite fast, which kept me from participating.  I used to be able to ride anything I wanted, but my stomach began saying “no more” about two years ago.  So, I’m now the Mom who stands on the sidelines holding everyone else’s lemonade while taking pictures.  This little girl sat down in the tiny car with an older teenage boy who I assumed was her brother.  She was probably about seven or eight, barely taller than the required height for the questionable ride.  As the sweaty teenager controlling the ride walked around the circle of cars to make sure everyone was buckled in, the little girl started questioning her decision to participate.  She started looking at her brother with a worried face, saying “I don’t think I can do this!”  Though she didn’t cry, she was clearly scared.  Her face contorted in fear as she kept repeating the phrase, “I don’t think I can do this!”  Her brother reached over and covered her hand with his, as they were both holding tight to the safety bar, and said “you got this! And I’m right here beside you!”  As the jerky ride took off, I lost sight of how she was holding up, but hoped that her fears turned to giggles.  As the ride ended, I waited for my peeps to exit (knowing they loved every second), then waited to see how the little girl did.  To my delight, she literally skipped down the metal exit ramp while yelling “that was AMAZING!!!” Once she reached the grassy area at the bottom of the ramp, she turned several cartwheels and ran to her parents who had been waiting not far from me.

That little girl went on to enjoy her day, and will never know how thought provoking I found her two minutes on that ride to be.

I’ve faced many scary moments in my life, when I suddenly felt like I was on a terrifying ride that was just too big for me….and I began to say “I don’t think I can do this.”  I’m so thankful that I have a God who has always said “you got this!  And I’m right here beside you!” just as the ride took off.  Sometimes, I left the ride scared to death and nauseated, but sometimes I left turning cartwheels, just like that little girl.  But either way, I left the ride knowing that He was right there with me.  And life is definitely a ride….sometimes scary and fast, sometimes slow and dark, but always a bit uncertain.

So, as summer comes to an end (wiping tears…), I hope to be just like that little girl as I face a new school year.  There will be struggles and times when I say “I don’t think I can do this.”  But I bet I’ll end up turning more cartwheels than ever.  🙂