It is Winter in Wilton and I am looking out my huge picture window on to a couple of acres of snow covered property naturally landscaped by mature Pine, Oak, Maple, and Willow trees, as well as several outcroppings of New England sized boulders!
In other words, I am sitting in awe of the nature surrounding me. The hypnotic beauty has been allowing me to float through the imagination of this exact same experience of admiration in four different scenarios, with the singular change in each scenario of being that it occurs at four different ages in my life. First, the scene will be remembered through the experience of a 4 year-old, then as a fifteen year old teenager, then as a 30 year old young father, and eventually as a 60 year old man, mature in my career and lifestyle!
This day as a four year old (in 1951) would have been heaven on earth for me. There were a lot of kids in my neighborhood around my age. I lived in a ranch house with a breezeway (an outdoor screened in porch between the house and the 2 car garage) that was typical of the neighborhood. We lived at the bottom of a long sloping hill and my older brother would have woken me up early to to meet up with other neighborhood kids to ride our sleds. Our ride was provided by a two runner sled manufactured by Samuel Allen from a design that was originally designed and manufactured in Philadelphia in 1889! At the time I began sliding down hills the model was known as a Flexible Flyer. Every kid in the neighborhood owned one, which the parents would trudge up the hill and then give their kids a mighty push to get them started down toward the bottom. That was a pure thrill ride for a four year old!
As a fifteen year-old the scene I’m admiring in this moment outside my window would have meant a day off from school. Our rural neighborhood was one of the first in the area to have a shopping mall. In fact, you could reasonably characterize the late 1950’s through the 60s and 70s as the shopping mall era. Shopping Malls or Shopping Centers came in to existence by incorporating department stores, retail stores and specialty stores, as well as food chains, restaurants, and entertainment venues all under a single roof, connected under continuous cover from the weather outdoors. Also, as a fifteen year old male, I was beginning to become interested in girls. Shopping malls were the ideal place to meet up with girls without parental supervision. At the age of 15 I did well academically, but less well than I might have done without the distraction of girls and the social opportunities and distractions of both high school and shopping malls.
Fast forward in time to my 30 year old self. I had been married for five years, with a four year old son and another son on the way, a house, two cars, a country club membership and the responsibility of maintaining and growing a third generation family construction business. I worked alongside my brother and with my father in a high stress, low margin, extremely competitive industry. In retrospect, I believe this was an era when I turned selfishly inward. I can only describe it as a period of time when I focused much too specifically on things while often ignoring the magic of life and family, experiencing each day as it was happening in the moment.
For me, I worked too hard, played too much golf at the club that bordered our house property, and spent less time with my beautiful wife and young children than they deserved. It is a period of regret for me. As for the spectacular winter wonderland in front of me in this very moment as I look out the window, I would still have admired the visuals, taken my two boys out on the golf course, put them in their flying saucers (the plastic discs that replaced Flexible Flyer sleds for off road winter sliding) and given them a mighty push down the long sloping hill. Then I would have gone to shovel the driveway!
By the time I would have been a 60 year old, admiring the same scene out my window at this moment, my first wife and mother of my three oldest children would have passed away from cancer. My second, beautiful wife, along with her beautiful daughter and I would have already been integrated into our new blended family for eight years. The point is that the beauty surrounding us never leaves the scene. It is ever present. We are welcome to admire it or ignore it…but it is worth it to acknowledge it often. The benefits are tremendous.
I am so grateful to you dear Earth. Be well!
