Just the Two of Us

“I want to go Strawberry picking” he said. We had plans to go but friends had canceled and now what was going to be a fun day out with friends was going to be hours in the car just Jack and I. And that just seemed exhausting.

So I tried to sway him to do something else. “Don’t you want to go to the beach?” “What about meeting our friends at the playground”

But he wouldn’t be swayed, he had been promised strawberry picking and damn it he was going to pick strawberries.

So we went. Driving the hour plus drive to the farm. We got there and the weather was perfect and the farm was empty. We were relaxed and happy. We played in the Discovery Barn, a mix of play grounds, play areas, bikes and a splash pad. We did what he wanted to do. No, “let’s do what they want to do”. No, “give someone else a turn”. Just the two of us.

We ate ice cream for lunch and lingered in the strawberry field picking more than we could possibly eat. We took another spin on the bikes before calling it a day. Jack could have stayed longer but it was a long ride home.

And as Jack nodded off in the back of the car and I navigated the road home, I though that this day would have never happened 2 years ago. That for so long I was hesitant for us to do anything on our own. Always waiting for John to have a day off, for friends to be able to go, for the perfect day. And I would get angry when the stars didn’t align, I would put off plans, reschedule, let it go, think maybe next time.

Next time would never come. And I would be mad at myself and at the world for not having gone. For having missed the opportunity to have fun, to have an adventure. That I was waiting for someone else to make things fun rather than making my own fun.

But that day strawberry picking we made our own fun and it was perfect. Just the two of us was perfect.