Childhood Creeks

Do you remember the creek of your childhood? I sure do. Ours was in our backyard with a huge "jumping rock" and secret tunnels. Maybe your's was a creek or a river, pond, lake, swamp, or even the ocean?

I think that little stream that ran through a culvert and through our woods then through a couple of tunnels under driveways is called Avon or Duhart Creek, but to us, my sister and me, it was just our creek. We spent many hours exploring, jumping in, skipping rocks, playing in the water, creating worlds of magical mysteries and stories.

Childhood should be full of creeks. Fewer video games, more creeks and rivers. Our six-year-old son has loved water all his life, swam in the bathtub as an infant and now loves his backyard creek. You can bet that if he's getting his feet wet, he will "accidentally" fall in and be soaking wet within three and a half minutes. Besides when it's 102 degrees in the shade in April, a kid has to find a way to cool down and there are only so many cherry-cola popsicles!

There are sea monsters and hurricanes and shipwrecks in the imagination of a six-year-old in our creek. There is insane splashing, jumping, water dancing, and rapids riding. There is much laughter and squealing and giggling and hollering and smiling.

Could there be snakes or hidden dangers? Well, of course there are. Where are there not hidden dangers? But would our kids be better off stuck in their rooms watching a screen? Or outside playing in the creek amidst the sea monsters, pirates, shipwrecks and buried treasure? Those will be the memories on which they look back on fondly as adults. Those will be the moments of genuine, pure joy that will buoy them in life. Those will be the moments in which they learn how to live - full of joy, laughter, creek stomping, sea monsters and buried treasure.

We can learn a lot by watching kids play in the creek. Remind ourselves to do something simply for the sheer joy of it, to laugh out loud, to splash ourselves and our friends, to fall down, to play outside, to use our imaginations, to talk with our inner self, to get a little sand in between our toes.

This summer get outside, play in the dirt, take a hike, fly a kite, run through a field of wildflowers, splash in the creek, chase lightening bugs, catch frogs, float down a river, watch the stars. Maybe you don't have a creek, but find something outside to spark your joy, make you feel alive inside. Put down the phones and follow your children outside (or push them out the door) to find a little simple joy.

All photos in this post by my dear friend, Dallas at Freckles Photography who finds her joy in the stands of a ballfield and behind the lens of a camera.

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Other suggested posts: Slow It Down, Work Hard Play Hard, Teamwork, Shelling Peas, Ridding Your Life of Negativity