Live In The Now!

Very few people know about my spontaneous, fun-loving nature. That’s because I keep it so well hidden that I barely remember I still have it.

A week ago, my brother’s family drove from Utah to our home in Boise, Idaho for a visit. When they got ready to return home, I asked if I could "hitch" a ride to Utah, where our daughter, Jill, her family, and our three oldest sons live.

"How will you get back home?" my brother and his wife asked.

"How will you get back home?" our sixteen-year-old daughter, Janette, asked.

"How will you get back home?" my husband asked.

"I don’t have the slightest idea," I said.

That settled it. We were off.

My husband emailed our sons that I was on my way. When I arrived at their apartment, they had a question. "Mom . . . how will you get back home?"

During the next two days, I participated in a kayaking expedition, dined on our son, Dan’s gourmet recipe of salmon marinade that was to die for, played darts long enough to actually win a game and ate lots of pizza.

The next day, I "hitched" another ride with Jill, who had scheduled a three-day camping trip in southern Utah with our two grandchildren while her husband prepared for a big exam. We ate several versions of sausage and eggs from a Coleman stove, made a fish necklace out of beads, collected crawdad claws, roasted marshmallows over a campfire and fell asleep to the tune of an elk lullaby.

Back at Jill’s house, her husband, Randy, agreed that a drive to visit the great-grandparents (who live in American Falls, Idaho) would be an excellent way to unwind from his exam. Of course, I "hitched" along, headed in the direction of home. From there, I caught the final "hitch" back to Boise with my husband and Janette, who had decided to drive to American Falls to visit my mother-in-law. If I had PLANNED it, things couldn’t have worked out better.

I’m home now . . . back in my "regular" life of urgent deadlines and revolving to-do lists. But I’m keeping my fun-loving nature handy . . . ready for further unplanned adventures. Roasting marshmallows with grandchildren and playing darts with the people I love most are ever-so-much more important than anything on my schedule.