The Meaning of Front Porch Life

 Sitting on the front porch, Southern style has always been my greatest reflection times. When I really want to think deep all I have to do is go out and sit on the front porch, breathe in the fresh air, observed the trees and listen to the birds. it gives me time to think about and reflect on what’s really important in my life. I’m at a stage of my life now where a lot of reflecting is going on not only with grandbabies being born but friends leaving whether it’s relocation or going home for the next chapter of their lives or maybe making plans for reentry, who knows. Living in a world of such busyness it is not as easy for families to get together like when my children were young. I hate that for the new families of today there is hardly much downtime. Everything is so busy just trying to provide a life for your families. When you get to my stage of life and you’re still working, it becomes the same patterns daily, but thank goodness because of my truck driving, I get to move around a lot and see new faces and hear people’s stories and still having that every day relationships among my colleagues is a form of encouragement.

In our daily lives, there is such a wonder about hearing each other’s stories. It is something that I encourage people to do, not in the form of gossip, but in the form of truly listening, there is so much that we discover that is similar in our family experiences, however, society would have us to think that we are so different when we are really so much alike. Especially if you take the time to truly listen to people, a lot of the same concerns is with everyone. When I realized the divide between the halves, and the have Nots early in life, I truly began to recognize that there’s not a big gap as people would have us to believe. We go to school, grow up, get jobs / careers, make families, break bread together and eventually cross the greater divide into the realms of the great creation.

Life is really not as long as we wish it would be and we are never ready until we’re ready to call it quits. There’s many ways to keep yourself encouraged and one of the ways is sitting out on the front porch and just taking time to reflect and be still with the great creator. Just allowing your mind to unwind from the world that’s so steadily distracting us. I would like to encourage everyone to take this time out of their lives, whether it’s your front porch or your balcony, sitting in your car or on the side of the creek or on the shores at the ocean or maybe even hiking the trails of your greatest mountains, but take that time for yourself and breathe the wonderful stillness of God, make that connection and have that conversation of peace, stillness, gratitude, and love. 💖