Walking with your children

In a world where we tend to rush from one activity to the next, and then relax individually in our own room, I think walking is a solution for all of us to slow down and spend quality time with our loved ones.

My Clarissa still remembers how her mommy carried her on her back when she was four-years old while pushing her one-year old sister in a stroller the last mile of  a day out in the Nature Center in Birmingham, England.  Clarissa was really tired and could not walk anymore.  But after a few blocks, she got down and said she wanted to walk some more...

Now that Clarissa is 14-years old, she walks to pick up her almost 11-year old sister, Ashley, from school a few days each week. They often come home laughing and talking more than they would typically inside our house.

The other day, while walking home from school with Ashley in the rain, we picked up some lost worms from the sidewalk and put them on the grass.  Ashley said to me, "Mommy, Jessica told me that her mom stepped on two worms yesterday and she wished she would step on more!"  

I looked at Ashley and asked, "What did you say to her?"  

Ashley looked up at me, smiled, and said, "I told her my mom picks up the worms and puts them on the grass so they can live."