As a kid, when I’d stay overnight at my Grandparents’ farm, I always slept in a room that had a shelf running along the side of the bed packed with Reader’s Digests from years gone by. Hundreds of Readers Digests, all squished together – their spines making a rainbow across the shelf. I’d lay in the bed waiting to fall asleep and would pull the magazines out one by one, looking at the pictures and advertisements from the 60s and early 70s. It is such a distinct memory of my childhood. 

Now, when my kids have even a small experience that reminds me of my own childhood, I start to feel nostalgic. It reinforces that even though the world keep spinning and time marches on, children are still children, and the wonder of childhood hasn’t disappeared. 

The past few days we vacationed at a cabin on Pigeon Lake, and stacked on the shelves were children’s encyclopedias from years gone by. The kind that you used to order in the mail and one would arrive each month. My girls were fascinated. They pulled each volume off the shelf and flipped through it, looking at the drawings and reading about airplanes, and dog breeds, and how fish are stocked in lakes. Things that if we were at home, they probably wouldn’t have even asked about – or we would have Googled. But there’s something about just flipping pages and learning as you go. Discovering things you didn’t even know you wanted to discover. 

It’s a reminder that sometimes life is about slowing down and noticing our surroundings. Unplugging and exploring. And trusting that spontaneous beauty can appear anywhere you decide it can.