Wholesome Family Recreation

     I want to paint you a little picture, imagine you are out in public, say at a restaurant, and you look around at all the other people that are there and all you can see is families on their phones and not talking to each other. You think to yourself, "Boy I'm glad that isn't my family!" and as you look back you realize that the same thing has happened to your family. Does this sound familiar?

     Remember the good 'ol days when you would go outside and your imagination took over and it would take you anywhere? What happened to those days? I remember whenever I was bored and I told my mom, she would say to me, "You're bored? I'll give you something better to do!" to which I would respond, "No I'm okay, I'll go find something to do". Ah, good times and memories from my childhood, but back then we only had dial-up internet and I remember that it was so slow! But in my family we only ever used the computer if we had to do a project for school or get directions somewhere. The rest of the time we were outside playing or helping our parents around the house, there was no time for technology.

     But now in our fast-paced world, information changes at incredible speeds and is only getting faster every day. We have to stay connected in order to stay up to date with what's happening around the world. Remember that picture I painted you at the beginning? Well that's what this life looks like now, everyone posting on Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat of their food that they ordered from the restaurant before they eat it, #foodislyfe.

     But you know things were so much simpler I feel, back when I was a kid. I mean as far back as I can remember I was a pretty happy kid, I didn't have all of this technology that exists now. For fun we would go on family trips up to Utah or Montana (I call New Mexico home btw) and we would visit aunts and uncles and grandparents along the way. We didn't have cellphones in the car or DVD players, we had books or we would play the license plate game. I cherish those memories not because they were boring, but because it was time that I got to spend with my family and we grew together.

 

That is what is missing from our lives these days, we don't spend enough time together with our families. We don't do recreational activities together and we don't just sit and talk at the dinner table about how our day was or what we learned at school. We need to put the phones down and reconnect with the people that matter in our lives. Now I understand that there are things that you can't control in your life so that you can find time to get away from work and school and obligations to just go out and have fun together, but plan to make that time happen and include other family members ideas in what they would like to do. But most of all make sure no one is left behind or forgotten.