Front Porch

Happy Friday Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day, that you had a wonderful week and that you had a very safe & Happy 4th of July.

Have you ever thought much about a porch? I hadn't ever really thought much about one...until this week. Just as I was typing my question, my mind raced back to being a little boy of 6 or 7-years old, sitting out on my Nano & Grandpa's back porch, eating popcorn and listening to my Grandpa tell stories, laughing so hard he could barely finish the funny one's. Man how I loved, and still cherish, those times!

This week the chorus from the Tracy Lawrence song, "If the World Had a Front Porch," was on my heart and kept departing from my lips - sadly for those who were within earshot:



"If the world had a front porch like we did back then

We'd still have our problems but we'd all be friends

Treating your neighbor like he's your next of kin

Wouldn't be gone with the wind

If the world had a front porch, like we did back then."

We spent this past week at Grammy's house - my Mom's house. She has a beautiful cabin in the mountains outside of Cloudcroft, NM. Off the front of the cabin is a porch, 8 - 10' wide, running the full length of the cabin. This place saw more action than any other place on the entire mountain this week! This reality, and the profoundness of it, really struck me.

When my Beautiful Bride and I would wake up in the morning we would get bundled up - hey, the high 40's is cold to Desert Rats! - and head to the porch. After scrambling around all corners of the deck to see if any deer or elk were still hanging around before heading into the deep woods I would read my bible, read my book, read the newspaper on-line. Soon Grammy would wake up and she too would head to the porch. Grammy, my Bride and I would talk about all kinds of things - some serious, some funny. One by one, as Grammy's husband and then each of my 3 Tender Warriors woke up everyone headed for the porch. Most mornings my sweet cousin and her hilarious husband would head over from their cabin when they got up. Oh yeah, and several neighbors as well as friends, would stop by the porch during the week. 

The porch was the "Command Center." Everything started and ended here. The day started and ended on the porch. Baseball games, hunting excursions, fishing trips, golf outing, trip to town to serve the needy through the food bank...EVERYTHING started and ended on the porch. This week the porch served as the platform for and witnessed:

• Hopes & dreams being discussed...and yes, worries & fears too
• Sorrow as we learned that 19 young firefighters had lost their lives fighting the Yarnell Hill fire
• Me getting ambushed with silly string on my birthday
• Meeting new friends, getting to know one another, learning about our respective life journeys
• Watching baseball games on the field the boys and I made in the front yard down below...at least twice a day...every day! A front yard in the mountains is nothing like a front yard in the city = it is on a hill. After hitting the ball, running about 3 steps I was actually trying to stop the rest of the way to 1st base which usually resulted in my not actually stopping until I was somewhere beyond what was actually the home run line. The boys found this hilarious...I have found myself sore in spots I didn't know existed!
• Eating watermelon, cookies, chips & salsa, pizza pockets...you get the point
• Cleaning the fish that we caught for dinner
• Games of Phase 10 between my Bride and I...I never won...completely convinced she cheats!
• Fights & arguments - just keeping it real!
• The lighting of sparklers on the 4th of July
• It served as a great "hiding place" for the 8, 13, 17 and yes, 46-year old snipers to try - heavy emphasis on try - to shoot unsuspecting little birds that would land in the yard with a BB gun
• The telling of stories about our great adventures of the day
• Learning about family members we never met, hearing the stories of their success & failures, trials & triumphs, etc.
• It was the place we warmly greeted each other when we arrived and where we sadly said goodbye when it was time to leave

It is funny, after we would disperse from the porch and head off to whatever I would find myself singing the words, "if the world had a front porch like we did back then/ we'd still have our problems/ but we'd all be friends." It really got me thinking, what if we really did meet with our families on our porches? What if, instead of running home, turning on the computer, TV, IPad, etc., we went and sat together on the porch, talked about the day, talked about our hopes, dreams, worries, fears, etc.? What if we really waved at the people who drove or walked past? What if everyone knew that they could just drop by and visit for a while? What would the world - or at least our world - be like then? This Friends is my challenge for all of us this week; Let's really sit out on the porch at least once a week - no agenda, no gadgets...just us, our families, our friends and let's just talk. As the lyrics to the song go, we'll still have our problems, but we'll all be friends (the problems will still exist however your husband/wife, son/daughter, friends will know that you love them, you care about them, that you are there for them and maybe, just maybe, we will know and understand them a little bit better).

I also wanted to share a couple of great quotes with you. I will keep my thoughts/commentary to myself and simply allow them to speak to your heart, to your spirit however they may.

"There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained." - Winston Churchill

 

"Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to this country and to mankind is to bring up a family." - George Bernard Shaw

 

Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always be willing to help you any way I can.

 

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious family and enjoy your front porch!

 

Kev