I’m talking about Mommsen’s Pumpkin Patch, and if you live anywhere in the vicinity of Rice Lake, Wisconsin, surely you’ve heard of it. The perfect place to take your children on an autumn day when the air is crisp and apple-biting and sun pours from the sky like liquid gold.
A couple of the teachers from the kids’ church of which I’m a part–we call it Community Children’s Club–came up with the idea of taking the kids on a field trip to Mommsen’s.
I emailed a friend about it:
We are taking our community children’s club children on a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch near Rice Lake. A petting zoo, corn maze, pumpkin cannon, hay ride, etc. Should be fun, if only I can let all my worries/decisions/responsibilities go and just enjoy the day. Sometimes it seems I carry the world on my shoulders wherever I go, and it’s actually HARD for me just to have fun. Maybe all adults experience this, I don’t know.
It’s true. I am always accomplishing, planning, worrying, thinking ahead, thinking behind. It is hard for me to exist fully within any moment because a part of me is always trapped, like an upside-down beetle with legs spinning frantically, in other moments and other plans.
I tell myself it’s only because I have a lot going right now, because I have so many decisions to make and so much to get done. When these things are behind me, I will be able to relax and enjoy life more.
But I’ve believed this for years, and always I have just as much to get done, just as many decisions, just as many responsibilities as ever before.
Finally, I must acknowledge that it is my attitudes and not my circumstances which form my view of life, that what I am today, I will be tomorrow.
My friend emailed me back. She understood, she said. She’d been there. But, she told me, “You can change!” And she gave me some of the wisest and most succinct advice I’ve ever received.
I thought it might help someone else also, so I asked her if I could share it. Here it is:
1. The first step is to think about something carefully, MAKE A DECISION and stop that process. Done!
It inevitably works out. If need be, pivot and laugh.
2. Second, assume God is in charge so stop the WORRY.
3. And third, if you are not in charge, let someone else take the main responsibility. If you are in charge, there is no choice but to be responsible.
Nothing magic. Simple steps. But they are concrete and accessible and just what I needed to start me on the path to lightening up.
And by the way, I had a great time at the Pumpkin Patch.
Thank you, Lucinda, for sharing this. I needed the reminder. Even knowing deep in my heart that God is all sufficient and doesn’t need my help at all, I still have a hard time letting go and letting him have full responsibility. My heart is telling me, “Pivot, and try again.” I enjoy your posts very much.
Thank you, Teckla. So glad that what helped me struck a chord with someone else.