Sunday Morning Nature Walk

I just couldn’t do ZOOM church this morning. Again.

Sigh. I miss our church and our friends, but our weekdays are so hectic, what with a crush of exhausting ZOOM meetings (the kids too, as they are both doing full-remote school), coordinating my office days and Hubby’s on-site work commitments with the dog and dropping the kids or picking them up from my mom’s, then fixing a healthy dinner, and getting the kids ready for bed…. by the time 10 a.m. on Sunday comes around, I just want to chill with the fam.

I had rallied the kids for ZOOM church and everything. Hubby had left for the stadium to call the game, and I thought we could at least sit outside and get spiritual.

But I just. Couldn’t. Log. In. My heart just sank, my body froze, and I turned to the kids and said, You know what? Let’s take the dog for a long walk in nature instead.

After all, the dog doesn’t care for our distracted, hectic week either.

The kids both expressed enthusiasm for skipping church, but not for walking.

Oh no, we are walking. Let’s go. Shoes on.

And out we went, down the road and around nearby Turner’s Pond, a lovely town park with a walking path around said pond. Despite being in the middle of town, the park features a good amount of woods and wildlife: We’ve seen deer, foxes, a muskrat swimming, a weasel eating baby rabbits, a gazillion rabbits, turtles, frogs, even snakes. The kids were hoping to see wildlife; I was hoping for an antidote to screen time.

It was a glorious fall day. We ran into a few neighbors and even met a few new people (as you do when you all are walking dogs and the dogs want to play…), saw some wildlife (many squirrels and chipmunks furiously gathering for winter), a few Gross Things (one dead duck, many shriveled fungi, and the kids were morbidly fascinated), and we chatted, just chatted about the coming winter, school, politics, candy, duck mortality, all the important things.

It was such a lovely, peaceful, largely uneventful, soothing walk.

Even the kids agreed, when we got home: Yeah, mom, that was a fun walk. I’m glad we did that.

And I do miss our church and our friends, I do. We will reconnect someday. Meantime this morning’s nature walk was what our souls needed today.