When we are counting blessings and/or looking back at our pasts, the good times are so important to remember. Those times ground us and allow us to smile. Growing up south of New Town, North Dakota, left me with many good memories.
Four years old, pretending an old gas tank, on five foot legs, was a horse; what could go wrong?? I apparently climbed up, was riding my pretend pony and slipped off onto the scoria rock below. I have a scar on my forehead that is slowly disappearing; the pucker thinning because of my aging, or the thousands of dollars I’ve spent on face creams.
My other scar, on my face, was from running from the house, to the grain bins with my eyes closed. ( Why would I do that? To see if I could, and I was taking toilet paper to my sister, who was waiting for me out behind the grain bins. (we were farm girls and sometimes it was just to far to run to the house to poop)). Boom! I ran into the disk (used to break up the soil in the fields). I turned and ran back to the house, blood running down my face, screaming bloody murder, for my Mom…and yes my sister was still waiting for the toilet paper… 🙂 I have a scar under my eye that the face creams haven’t quite done their job on. Not one broken arm or leg because of all those shenanigans.. just my face….being hard headed does come in handy…
Horses were not my friends. I loved them, but they bucked me off, laid down and rolled when I was riding them, took me under clothes lines….. Thank God the clothes lines were plastic, or my head laying in someone’s yard would have been an unpleasant surprise! Our Shetland pony ran full bore towards a fence, and as he lowered his head, I rolled off.. Do you understand my relationship with them? In retrospect I’ve had husbands with similar personalities! Lol!
These are the good times? Well, at least when you put them into perspective… 🙂 Life on the farm had many great days; we were allowed to run pretty freely. The lake was about half of a mile away and biking, walking or riding motorcycle there was always an adventure.
I have two favorite memories of the lake: My sister and I were at the lake when the water was coming up in the spring. It must have been a high water year, because the water came up into the grass and the fish were visible in the water. We decided to walk to a knoll in the water; as I walked the fish were so plentiful, that they bumped into my legs; it was creepy and exciting at the same time. Another time we were down in early spring, as the ice had blown up into mountainous piles on the shore. We climbed around on them, pretending we were explorers, the ice piles were dirty and slippery. I really am grateful that none of those adventures ended more seriously.
I had some wonderful friends growing up; we would have our spats, recover and move on. Friends who would try to protect me from myself, and from others.. Memories are roaring back, as I type this afternoon… Please sit down and think about the good things that have happened to you; let your memories roar back to you, let them soften the others that you don’t enjoy.
There were good times, and there will be more!!
Peace….
Loving and Surviving 