A New Inspiration?

Inspiration finally came this evening to blog. It was about seven this evening. There was a nice, cool breeze without the sticky feeling we had earlier today. The frogs and bugs and owls and birds were singing together as a choir that I have enjoyed immensely the last several nights as I sit on the deck. Jeff was carefully planting the last of the bushes and plants he had selected for our landscaping that he has been looking forward to doing. The kids were playing and I had just begun my first blog in over a week.
It was going to be very sentimental and nostalgic as I have been slapped in the face during the past two weeks. Obviously, we all know that Rachel will be a freshman in high school this fall and it's no secret that this fact is very disturbing to me and I have tried in every way possible to avoid facing the reality of it. What wasn't obvious to me when school ended was that Rachel is actually beginning high school right now. You can't even imagine the adjustment that I went through last week and I finally had to just accept it. I knew things would be more hectic in high school-- just didn't know it began one week after eighth grade was over. I was going to reminisce about her childhood and her friendships and our family and how blessed we are.
Just as I had typed my first sentence, Jeff came to me at the computer with this whitish looking object covered in dirt. At first glance, I pulled away,asking what it was, fearing it was something that had once been alive or even worse--still was. To his great pleasure, it was a rock that had been carefully chipped, carved and used by someone as some sort of tool. I immediately looked more carefully and cleaned it for closer examination. Maybe nobody else would be excited like we were, but it began a conversation that lasted with our family most of the evening and turned out to interrupt my original blogging inspiration.
Jeff had dug up the tool while he was planting something near a tree in our yard. For those of you who have been on our property, you know that our deck has a view of a bottom and on the other side of our fence line is a creek which eventually feeds into Sac River. Last fall we had beautiful, black dirt hauled from the bottom, near the creek, to use as topsoil for our yard. We don't know if the tool was brought from down there or if someone from long ago left it exactly where Jeff found it, but I do know how awesome it is to think about a family or families living on our place anywhere from decades to hundreds to maybe even thousands of years ago. All evening my thoughts drifted to the person who crafted and used the tool. What did they use it for? When did they make it? Who made it? Was it a Native American? Was there a whole group of people? Did they actually live here for a time? The questions were endless, especially knowing that not far from here is a site that was excavated on the river by actual archaeologists and featured in National Geographic once. It is so exciting to think of children laughing and playing in the bottom and creek like Rachel and Alex do with their cousins, Jacob, Drew, and Tate and friends, Jake and Josie. Did their mothers enjoy the stars and the chirping frogs and bugs like Stephanie, Christy and I do? Did their fathers work hard like Jeff and David and Chad do? Did they scout the turkey and deer like these men do? Did those families enjoy each other's company like our families do? Did they choose this sight for the same reasons we all did-- because it is beautiful and quiet and peaceful?
As my new inspiration came over me to blog, I realized that at the heart of my new inspiration is the same one for almost all of my blogs--my husband, my children, my dear family and friends. Even with a three inch artifact carved out of a piece of rock I can still get nostalgic and reminisce about those I love the most. It's just that this time I also get to dream about the possibilities of a people and lifestyle from the past. I don't know anything 100% for certain about who made or used this tool, but I'm 99.9% sure they didn't have to worry about their daughter starting high school.