Family Traditions

My husband and I took a ride out to Front Royal yesterday to look at properties. We are contemplating getting a place in the mountains as a get-away retreat, a place to gather family and friends and a place to carry on family traditions. My husband grew up spending family vacations at his Aunt and Uncle's cabin in the mountains. It was a place he equated with outdoor adventures, childhood memories and large family gatherings. When we were dating, he spoke of it often, so when he invited me to join him there for my first Christmas, I knew it held a special significance. We were engaged by the end of the trip.

After Chuck's father passed away unexpectedly a few years after we were married, the whole family reunited at the cabin for our first Christmas with out him. It was also Charlie's first Christmas and she spent it nestled in a blanket drawer each night in place of a crib. When Chuck was deployed to Korea several years later, I moved into the cabin and raised my family there free from the pressures of a traditional home near an army installation. Over the years, the cabin provided an inexpensive vacation destination, a family gathering point, a home and a haven. But as everyone's lives got busier, and the trips to the cabin became fewer and fewer, it fell into disrepair, and the family began contemplating letting it go. It was our turn now to find our "cabin in the mountains" with the hope that it would some day provide the same kind of gathering point for our children and their families that the cabin had provided for us over the years.

We spent a better part of the day visiting different properties and trying to get a sense of what areas we would be most interested in. There was way too much to look at, and by the time we got back to the house,  my head was spinning with property listings. The truth was I was still a little sad at the thought of losing the cabin. It was filled with memories. We even considered the possibility of purchasing it for ourselves, but realistically we knew the to-do list was too long. We had toyed with the option of taking down the old and rebuilding something new, but if we took the emotions out of the decision, and made it from a strictly fiscal standpoint, the more sensible decision was to move on and find something new. I decided that the perfect way to slow my mind down would be a trip to the gym. I generally didn't like to work-out on Sundays, but it seemed like it could serve two purposes; not only would it be a great way to start my fitness week out on the right foot, but it would allow my thoughts to settle.

It was an elliptical day, so I tried to zone out by plugging into the TV. It worked for awhile, but my mind continued to wander. At some point towards the end of my routine, one of my daughter's friends came in with his Dad to work out. They were regulars at the gym, and I ran into them often. They had their own family tradition. They worked out together, and you could see that it was something that was rewarding to both of them. It occurred to me as I watched them together that I wished I had figured out how to lead this healthier lifestyle when I was much younger, so I could have passed it along to my children before they had developed their own bad habits.  It would have been great to work-out with my daughters, but it would be greater to know that they would face fewer of the health challenges that I have faced, because they were healthier individuals to begin with.

As I left the gym and headed home, it occurred to me it was never too late to start a new family tradition. After all I was my youngest daughter's age when I went to the cabin for the first time and nearly thirty years later it had left such an impression that I was looking for my own cabin in the woods. I might not be in a position to work out regularly with my daughters any more, but perhaps this cabin would not only be a place to gather friends and family for holidays and vacations, but it could also be a place to share long walks in the woods and Bare Naked Granola for breakfast too.