Where did you leave your footprints this summer?
It’s easy to get caught in what our summer wasn’t during this 2020 pandemic. After all, it wasn’t a lot of things. It wasn’t a summer of travel. There are no new magnets to add to our “National Park” themed fridge collection. It wasn’t a summer full of family reunions, play dates, and sleepovers. This past summer we haven’t left footprints on hiking trails far and wide, took snap shots on breathtaking mountainous ranges. Instead we’ve trodden back and forth on our familiar home tile floors, our unruly backyard grass, and our neighborhood scenic walking paths. This summer our footprints were left more locally and closer to home.
Fresh air and the outdoors have been our life-line in this pandemic. Almost daily family bike rides around our scenic neighborhood path quickly became a family ritual. We’d stop in a favorite spot, where the kids spot fish in the lake, try their luck at opening clams, sharpen sticks to make “spears”, or climb up a tree to read a book from the branch they claimed as their own. During our daily round, we’d smile and wave at friendly passersby, this was often our only social interaction for weeks.
This summer the kids left a trail of muddy footprints in our patio floor as they spent the morning kicking a ball, throwing a Frisbee, chasing a dragon fly, or fishing in the pond. They left a trail of broken bobbers, tangled fishing line and misplaced pliers. I can confidently claim that I spent a good portion of my summer untangling fishing line and reattaching hooks. They’ve caught (and froze) enough fish over the weeks to warrant a fish and chips family “feast” as they later referred to it.
At home, they’ve left a trail of misplaced sofa cushions and mangled throw blankets as they cuddled and consumed their summer reading books. This was definitely a summer for reading, whether in the form of a family read-aloud or diving individually into our own adventures. This summer we’ve felt how books can take you far and wide, back in time, or on adventures that leave you inspired to embark on your own.
This summer we dabbed our fingers and brushes into watercolors and acrylic painting. You’ve got to love step-by-step YouTube tutorials. We have a few proudly displayed art pieces to show for it. In the kitchen, they’ve left sugar and flour trails on the counters as they baked recipes and learnt to cook simple meals. They’ve also learned to wipe counters and mop the floors afterwards, which they’ve enjoyed far less, I must admit. But not all life skills are created equal in terms of level of fun, and you must learn them all.
A bit further from home, we’ve spent Saturday mornings on sandy beaches, explored board walks of local nature centers. We’ve played hide and seek with crabs camouflaging on mangrove branches or scurrying timidly into their holes. We’ve kayaked on local ponds and rivers, and wondered if we’d run into a friendly local alligator (we didn’t).
This summer was different, not as grand, but not any less memorable. The slow-paced, quiet (well as quiet as a house full of 3 rambunctious kids can be anyway- which is not at all) relatively lonely, “living in our own bubble” summer isn’t something we’ll soon forget. Many of our summer days felt like they lasted forever, and I couldn’t wait for the day to end. Yet the summer as a whole passed us by as quickly and playfully as a refreshing breeze, here one second, gone the next. We are thankful to Allah, for every minute we were granted and every footstep we were allowed to take, together as a family, enjoying our health and the blessings Allah bestows upon us, today and always. الحمد لله دائما و أبدا
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