My parents had specifically told us that day not to leave the safety of Stillwater Court. Most of the time we were content to ride our bikes up and down the street and hang out with the numerous children that shared the cul-de-sac with us. But since we had been expressly forbidden not to venture outside of our street's boundaries, curiosity overcame us and we crossed the threshold into the unknown.
The next street over really wasn't that exciting. My brother had an early morning paper route that we occasionally helped with and we found that the scenery was far less mysterious in the sunlight than it was during the wee hours of the morning. After doing our due diligence exploring, we returned to the familiar sights of Stillwater Court only to find that during that seemingly short time we had been away, Mom had, of course, noticed we were not where we had promised we would be.
We were immediately ushered into the house and told we were grounded. We were not to go outside and play but to spend the rest of the afternoon in our room. We protested. We tried to explain that the next street over was boring and that there were no scary people about. But Mom and Dad were deaf to our explanations. They simply stated that our innocent fun could have resulted in one or all of us getting lost or stolen away. We needed to learn that when we break the rules, we have to accept the consequences that come with our actions.
So we grumbled. We stared wistfully out the window into the sun-filled backyard. We heard the sounds of our neighbors splashing away in their pool next-door. We felt the full weight of our actions. We were sorry that we had given up our freedom for a few moments of fun.
As our eyes adjusted to the dim light of the bedroom, we began to look at our surroundings a little more. Our blankets were strewn across our beds. Our dolls were on the floor. Brittany picked up one of the blankets, Brigitte found some hair things, I found some heavy books, and brilliant ideas began pouring into our minds. An hour later, we finished building our three-room fort, fully equipped with beds (made out of towels) for our dolls and fake furniture made out of whatever random objects we could find. We had made the ultimate doll house and we had a ridiculous amount of fun playing inside of it.
We had discovered how to make the most of a difficult situation. Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say. Though we missed the warmth of the sunlight and the opportunity to see our friends that day, being cooped up indoors gave way to ingenuity and creativity. We learned that with a brain, a little hard work, and determination we could turn the darkness into light. Our punishment turned out to be a blessing in disguise. And Mom realized she might need to change her methods of punishment for the future ;).
(DISCLAIMER: I write my Childhood Reminiscing Sessions in a lighthearted, slightly sarcastic tone but I actually just realized after finishing this that there are some gospel parallels and life lessons to be gleaned from this story. Feel free to make whatever allegorical assumptions you so choose ;).)
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