This Week’s Good News Blog Post:

This Week’s Reflection …

We were not poor by any stretch of the imagination. But my family was decidedly middle-class in a 1960s sort of way. There were seven of us - two parents raising a raucous brood of five children. Our modest brick home provided one shower, one phone firmly attached to the kitchen wall, and one TV that received just three channels - all of which were off the air by midnight.

My favorite childhood toys included a cedar chest with hundreds of well-worn wooden blocks, a cloth bag filled with green plastic army men, and a round Charles Chips tin full of Matchbox cars. There were also endless adventures to be found outdoors. My friends and I would prowl the neighborhood like feral creatures easily fascinated to distraction by big sticks, large and slightly terrifying bugs, and favorite trees with limbs low enough to allow us to climb into the sky.

By today's standards - at the least the life I've come to know - we didn't have much. One summer, when I was perhaps 9 or 10, I managed to lose my only sneakers and, in the ease of summer, simply chose to spend my days roaming the neighborhood in bare feet

My mother would be mortified that I am sharing this story. But I often think of that summer as an example of what I need - and don't need - to be content. I had my blocks, my sticks, the creek in the nearby woods, and warm summer days free of the confines of an elementary school classroom. I don't think I've ever been as truly unfettered and happy as in those days. This childhood perspective of what truly constitutes happiness holds me in good stead to this day.

I had very little. I had everything I needed. And I will always be thankful for a childhood that so richly provided for me by never giving me too much.

Be the First to Know What’s Happening in Flat Rock, NC.

About Flat Rock Together

Flat Rock Together is a community project created and developed by a few of your neighbors with a lot of ideas and just a little bit of free time. This very non-commercial endeavor is an effort to create a greater sense of connection and community among the many wonderful residents and friends of Flat Rock.