It’s in Their Genes.

You know what’s cool? My husband and my oldest daughter (and her cousin) just got back from Scout Camp. Dirty, stinky, exhausted and exhilarated. But that’s not the cool part. The cool part is that my husband went to this same camp as a scout about 30 years ago with his dad. He was a scout with this same troupe for most of his childhood, and his old Scout buddies are now the leaders. So they all got to go camping together.
Sometimes, we take these things for granted – these moments in our lives where we get to share a piece of our past with our children. But if you don’t live in the same place you grew up, this kind of experience is pretty special.
So, we’re not travelling as much as we had hoped at the moment, but look at what our kids are getting by staying in this one place for a while. They are getting to know life here. They are developing relationships with cousins, aunts, uncles, great aunts, and great grandmas that they may never have had. Not to mention quality Nana time! They are experiencing some of the people and places of their dad’s childhood, and their mum’s too. They are having family time, and extended family time. And not just the rushed, sometimes forced, two-week-vacation kind of time. The real life time. The kind that is interrupted by school, homework, swimming lessons, and doctors appointments. The kind that is just hanging out and being a part of people’s lives. Taking the dog for a walk, putting the garbage out, walking across the road to visit a relative…going to scouts with your cousins and listening to stories of when your dad and uncle used to go. Stories of their mishaps and adventures. Only now you have your own stories of scaling and gutting fish, and cooking them on the campfire. Or playing tug o’ war across the stream. Or your cousin cutting her eyelid open on a barbed wire fence while playing survival games in the dark, only to be told something like that was bound to happen because “it’s in her genes” (her dad was often transported from scout camp to the nearest emergency room). These are important experiences to have. Maybe more important than the Eiffel Tower, the Roman Colosseum, or Buckingham Palace.

Someone reminded me recently that it’s not about where you travel to, or how far you go, it’s about making memories wherever you happen to be. And I think we’re making some pretty good ones right here.