‘I think today was the best day of my life’
The faint outline of a penknife carving from a tree in Ballintubber that has remained from at least 35 years ago.
As parents of two young boys, when the school summer holidays arrive there can be a bit of a rush to organise camps, activities, holidays, and events for our children.
From what I see, most of us as parents put tremendous pressure on ourselves by constantly having something organised that we must race to.
If it’s not branded with a fancy holiday destination or elite sports camp, then it’s not even worth mentioning. Having spent most of this sunny season trying to create the best summer ever by organising trips and forking out plenty of money for activities for our boys, I got a bit of a reality check over the past few days.
Our two sons aged 12 and 10 met with their Galway city cousin aged 11 in their grandparents’ home in Ballintubber. They roamed the fields at the back of the house independently and stumbled across an area where they decided to make a secret hideaway den.
Three excited boys spent the day gathering stones and sticks and cleaning out areas to sit on, as imaginations ran wild, until they created what they viewed as a fort fit for Kings.
When I called to collect the men, I yelled their names down the fields as my mother did for me decades ago until I heard the roar back, “we’re here”.
I walked down to locate the lads who had big, happy heads on them. I was then proudly shown around the theatre of dreams they had busied themselves creating throughout the day.
A big tree stood in the middle of their fort, and I pointed out the faint outline of two penknife carvings that remained from at least 35 years ago from my brother and I, DB and AB.
That night, three tired boys lay on the couch fighting off the sandman. When I convinced the youngest to go and hit for the hay I asked him did he enjoy his day? The response “I think today was the best day of my life”.
Time passes and life changes at a rapid pace, but children will always remain children and they all have imaginations. Perhaps sometimes we are inhibiting that creative thought by constantly having a note in the calendar of an organised event to run to.
While reflecting over a cup of tea that night I dawned on me that maybe we often overlook what's right in front of us, spending valuable time searching elsewhere for answers that have been there all along.
This week, as the rush back to school begins, I’m happy to know that I didn’t deny a 10-year-old the opportunity to have “the best day of his life”.
