Little Red Wagon

 

Don’t know how about you, but I like the week between Christmas and New Year.   For me, over the years, it has become more than a marking time week of post-holiday leftovers and decorations beginning to wear out their welcome. It has become a week of quiet of the good sort.  Where I live, it is most often a time of cold and snow and that makes the world an even quieter, cleaner, and fresher place. It's comfortable. It is also restorative somehow – at least it is if you manage to miss the weather extremes.  It also makes you very thankful for a warm home and simple accoutrements like gloves and thick socks.

When I was a child (many, many moons ago), I had a little red wagon. I wore it out over time.  I would sit half in the wagon on one knee and hang the other leg outside to use as a brake or a pusher. It was a time of scabby knees and pony tails. I could scoot along or drag my one foot as needed to pretty much control the speed. I could also use it to gather treasures along the way. You know, things like the perfect stick or proper skipping stones. My old Keds took a beating. The nice thing about those wagons is that you could steer them with the handle bent toward you as you rode along. You were the driver… in charge.  It was nice. Even riding over the bumps was sort of fun. 

Past the little red wagon stage now, but I like to think that I am still in the driver’s seat of my life and the week between Christmas and the New Year is, perhaps, the time to ride along nicely and hope that your Keds are up to the challenge.  May we all have one week to just enjoy the peace as we ease into the next year. Maybe we can even find perfect small treasures along the way -- you know -- for future adventures.  

In 2023 we are able to begin again ... a fresh start …. Happy New Year….  May your wagon miss the big bumps….