Ten years ago my first born came into this world, the cutest and squishiest bundle of love. Just months after he was born we fell into a tradition of taking a walk every night after dinner. It wasn’t a conscious choice to start this tradition. With only one baby, the evening hours seemed so long, so we filled that time with a walk. So, in time an evening walk after dinner was our family’s tradition.
A Treasured Tradition
To this day, when I think about those sweet moments pushing my new baby in a stroller and talking about anything and everything with my husband, I get a swell in my heart. It was a special time. We lived right down from a nature reserve that also had a baseball field. The night walk was a mix of a beautiful scenery and the distant shoots of children playing ball. I didn’t work and my husband worked great hours. Life was slow and the walks became a tradition we loved and looked forward to.
Traditions Die
Fast forward 9 years later and you will now find my life a bit different. We now have 3 children, my husband works a more time consuming job and I have my own business. All three kids are in school and ALWAYS have some type of homework to do. Saying we are busy is being nice!
And one day, on a strangely slow and quiet day, I found myself thinking about those little walks. That time seemed so much more simple and perfect. And I surprised myself when I started to shame myself that we didn’t take those traditional walks with the two babies who came next. And that our family rarely goes for walks after dinner now. I found myself sad knowing we had allowed that tradition to die and I hadn’t even noticed!
Tradition For a Time
I am proud to say I only let myself wallow in that shame and guilt for a few minutes. It was short lived because I realized some traditions are for a season and that is ok. My family has a lot of traditions; really great traditions.
We always make Halloween graham cracker haunted houses.
We always open 1 christmas gift on christmas eve.
Cinnamon rolls are always on the menu Sunday mornings.
Every Saturday you will find us enjoying pizza and a great movie playing.
And we hit the beach, rain or shine, pretty much every Friday.
These are traditions we will do for years and years. Hopefully, they will become traditions my kids carry on. But some traditions, like our little walks, fit well into a season and then need to be replaced with a new one that fits better.
We Will Walk
Ok, so I am committing to try to add a family walk in here and there. I think we will add bikes since my kids love riding bikes now! And who knows, maybe nightly bike rides will become a new tradition….at least for a season or my kids start driving!
