The Things We Bring Home

July 31, 2015 By Kelle

I’m a dreamer–always have been, always will be. No matter how grounded in reality my feet are, there are these thoughts that still escape as balloons–brightly-colored ones that bob high in the air, sometimes breaking loose and sailing away to God knows where–a balloon carnival.

I brought a bundle of these balloons home from our summer adventures–optimistic thoughts inspired by all the slow mornings we enjoyed and the observations I had time to explore.

I’m going home a better person! I’ll be more organized, more thankful, more attentive. I’ll read more, listen more, savor more, sip my coffee slower. I’ll plant a wildflower garden, dig a fire pit, mail postcards, wear a fluffy white bathrobe every morning (bought the exact same one my dad had at the cottage after falling in love with it). We will explore nature more together, gaze at stars more. I’ll be a better wife, a better mom, a better person. There is no shortage of helium in my balloons.

We’ve been home a few days now, and the balloons are off sailing somewhere. Yesterday after, I swear, my kids whined for the thirty-fourth thing within in a two-minute period and our clean house made the quickest transformation in history to messiest house ever, I got a little crazy.

“I’m going to be honest,” I told Brett last night, “I feel like I might lose my mind right here, right now in this kitchen. They didn’t do this on the trip.”

“I feel the exact same way,” he answered, “I can’t take it.”

“Well only one of us can lose it at a time, so you go first and I’ll take the little ones for a shower.”

Nobody lost it, and we managed to pull ourselves together for a family walk last night. Turns out three days is hardly enough time to implement life transformations and “life transformations” might be a little stretch on what is simply a sweetened approach to life after a full submersion in summer’s simple pleasures.

I’m wearing that bathrobe this morning and recognizing far more than yesterday the presence of those things we take home from adventures. I ordered the new book my cousin talked about, found the apricot scrub I fell in love with at my sister’s house, stacked the rocks I brought home from Glen Arbor which led to tidying a corner, rearranging a shelf.

I’m thankful that in between I’m hungry, Open this, I want juice, Fix this, I want to go outside, there is wind in our hair and constant invitations–no matter where we are or what season it is–to slow down and enjoy life’s little pleasures.