Abundance doesn’t need certainty to exist.  

Tracey Gee

Daddy, can we ride our bikes down to the ice-cream shop?

Whenever the girls all come in and start speaking in unison, that’s when I know to watch out. They’ve already concocted a plan and I’m just their target.

Here’s the deal: for all my talk about raising “free range” kids and letting the girls explore on their own, I still have my own control issues. I mean, pay attention to the use of my phrase letting the girls explore, as if I can control their curiosity and exploration.

But, every now and then I let go and well… see what happens. Here’s the dirty secret though: it’s really exhausting to try and control everything.

So I gave them my blessing. We’re on vacation in a small beach town. We already ride our bikes everywhere as a family. I figured, this could be a good opportunity for them to practice more independence and ride on their own.

My only concern was Sloane, our youngest (6 years old) who has just recently become a bike rider. Would she be able to keep up with her sisters? Would the older ones watch out for her? There was so much I was letting outside of my control. Still, in order to get some peace and quiet on vacation… It felt worth a shot.

As soon as they left I started to think about everything that could go wrong. Every loud noise outside was an opportunity for fear to creep in. I’m not sure that I ever really settled down, but at least I tried to distract myself with reading. It worked for a little while. Then, I started to hear the rain. I heard it before I saw it out the window. One of those quick, brief downpours characteristic of a Florida rain. There was nothing I could do but wait. I looked at my wife who was relaxing in a chair nearby and we both just smiled.

Within minutes we heard the unmistakable sounds of laughing children approaching the house. As they bounded off their bikes and into the house I could tell from the smiles and the laughter that they’d had a good time. It wasn’t planned or overly orchestrated, they just found themselves in the right place at the right time for a fun downpour.

May the abundance of good times continue to find us this week.

SDW3