Our outside space

We bought this little home of ours in the summer of 2003. I fell in love with it right away. It had big windows with warm sunshine pouring in and I could imagine our children laughing and playing in the different rooms. It had enough space for family and friends to come visit and for us to fit in our few belongings. The house had much of what we were looking for, but there was no outside space. Instead it had wide streets and a beautiful park at the end of the road. The park was alive - gorgeous old trees that gracefully touched the water, wide open spaces to play hide and seek and the chance to sit at the water's edge and dream.

In the last years, the park has become our outside space. We walk or bike there nearly every day, often on our way to somewhere else and often just to spend some playful moments there. For a few days this month the singel (Dutch for canal) was frozen and we tried to learn how to skate, we played hockey, we gave each other sleigh rides. In the spring, as the park begins to bloom, we watch the ducklings follow their mamas everywhere. The summer is for lazy days, picnics and ball games. And the autumn is for the collecting, crunching, throwing, piling and dancing of leaves, leaves and more beautiful leaves.

I am grateful for this beautiful space and for all the moments I get to spend in here with my family. I have watched my children grow up in the nooks and crannies of the park. I have memories of them learning to crawl, blow bubbles, climb trees and skate. The park has been here long before me and I suspect it will be here long after I'm gone. I am especially grateful that when our children are grown and have children of their own, Graham and I can still walk hand in hand through the park and remember all these times.