The Three Wise (Wo)Men

I honestly shouldn't be surprised at the gems I learn on my morning walks. When your three walking buddies have over 30 years on you; plus husbands, children, houses, grandchildren, and countless tidbits of wisdom about life and motherhood, you would keep your mouth shut and just listen too. That, and I usually am barely trying to keep up. I'm pretty sure we walk about 4 1/2 miles in 1 hour up and down the hills of Orem. Insane? Yes. Awesome and fun? You betcha.

The other day my three wise women were walking and talking about safety and how as the mothers of the world, they were going to do what they could to change the world! It was so cute and funny. And true. Although most of this was in reference to crazy drivers and pedestrians, it started out the morning with, "So who wants to hear the sad story of the day?" And then continued to share the story from the news about the 3-year-old that fell off of a rock and into the river while his family were getting their family pictures. They were lowering the dam so they could find his body. So so sad. (For once, I didn't even laugh.)  The moral of the story was not--to not take family pictures on picturesque rock walls by huge Provo rivers--although I never thought that was a good idea anyway. I always preferred the hay field plus mountain range background, oh and the family always seems to be holding hands. Classic, Mormon family picture ya know? Especially at dusk. You know which one I'm talking about. Back to the moral of this sad story though: the ladies began sharing stories about their personal accounts of the "what would have happened if so-and-so hadn't saved so-and-so" (i.e. pulled them up by their britches) when their crazy boys, grandsons, nephews, etc just wouldn't listen and were daring children. Sheesh! I won't be looking forward to this kind of stress and worry that motherhood brings. I can see now why healthy, skinny people can still suffer from hypertension.

The real wisdom came down through this story. Kathleen was sharing a time when her youngest (Rachel) was 2 and her next oldest was 6. They were planning a family trip to Lake Powell and her mom (Grandma) offered to watch Rachel, the 2 year-old. At first Kathleen said that she didn't want to split her family up. But she let Grandma watch Rachel anyway and she was so happy that she did. Basically, she and her husband would have had to be hitched to their toddler the whole time with parent safety duty AND in the end, Rachel would never even remember that family trip. So if your kids won't remember, then why bother? They'd have more fun with Grandma. And it's safer. And the parents can bypass that cardiac arrest if they see their 6-year-old throw your baby off the boat.

Don't get too many ideas Kelsey. I'm not Grandma... ;)