I had planned to make a skating rink in my back yard this year and had got some of the materials that I needed to build it before winter really showed up. I had great intentions but then October and November got busy real quick so I had kind of put it out of my mind. Finally between Christmas and New Years I had sometime to breathe and I was reminded of my desire when we went to a family gathering at a place where they have a rink built in the back yard. My kids were asking at almost every spare minute not to watch tv, not to play video games, not to eat something (because those pretty much sum up 90% of questions my kids have) they were asking me if they could go on the rink to skate. They would have spent all weekend out there if they could have and both my 9 year old who can skate well and our 4 year old who was on skates for the first time had the time of their lives and didn't want to come inside. So on New Year's Eve after we returned from our trip I started to build our backyard rink!
For those of you who know where we live you might think this is a little crazy. Our lot is great for it but the irony is that we can hear the slap shots and laughter of a community rink that is directly across from our back yard. Some say it's across the street which is a little deceiving but it would be only about a 5 minute walk away. And so why not use that rink when it's so available?
Well there are a couple of reasons why we don't use that rink. One, because my kids have never asked to go to that rink. Two, becasue although it is so close there are some inconveniences to it. There are no sidewalks to it so we would have to walk on a fairly busy road while crossing two other streets that have consirable traffic activity. So really it's not the safest walk even though it is so close. And yes, we drive to hockey practice for many of the same reasons. Three, I never know what kind of people will be on that rink at the community center. Four, quite frankly I don't always want to go skating with them or maybe it's sometimes I don't have the energy to go with them.
So putting the their love for skating and my constant desire to have an activity and my love to build things I went to work. And finally it was finished, or at least good enough to skate on. Feb 19th was our first time on the ice and it was great although the weather with wind chill was about -35 degrees celcius. Yeah, a little brisk.
As I was telling my tale of building a rink a good friend of mine told me that it was the silliest thing he's seen in a long time. Why would a guy build a rink when he's so close to another one that he doesn't have to maintain at all? Maybe not a bad question and I haven't been able to get the question out of my mind but here's my conclusion.
The reasons for it are stated above. I want to have my kids love things especially if it gets them outside and off the tv and I want them to enjoy something that I've built. Was it silly? Maybe. But as I've considered it's sillyness I've also considered why we don't do these types of silly things more often. Why don't we do things for those that we love just because we want to bless them, even if those things may seem silly? Why not do silly things with my kids and forget that I'm in my 30's? Why not do something silly with my wife although sensible logic wouldn't agree? Why not do something silly for God just because we want to see a smile and hear a chuckle?
I think I did something silly for my kids here. I could have told them to man up and hit the rink 5 minutes away or I could do something that defies logic and bless them with a rink that they will love to spend lots of time on. I'm glad that I did this for them and it's made me wonder who else I can do something silly and illogical for in the coming days.
Sometimes our silly and less logical actions can be the greatest offering we ever give!
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