Slime Time

My in-laws live on a ranch in central Texas. It's been one of my favorite places since my college days, when I used to run out there after classes to fish in the stock tanks or go dove hunting. But when you're driving around on the ranch, you have to watch out for mesquite thorns. Mesquite trees, even small ones, often have thorns over 3 inches long, and they go through a tire like a hot knife goes through butter.

My father-in-law has become a big fan of Slime, the green goo you can inject into any tire to prevent flats. The Slime coats the inside of the tire, immediately filling any puncture wound from mesquite thorns. Every truck, tractor, and lawnmower tire on the ranch has Slime sloshing around inside, just in case.

Activity is the slime of our lives. There is always a large pool of possible activities sloshing around, waiting for the first opening in our schedules to insert itself. Oh, look! We had a cancellation at 6:00 PM on Tuesday. The first question that comes to mind is, "What will we do?" And so the slime oozes right in. We're convinced our lives will go flat without it, but they won't. In fact, our lives roll along a little better if we let a little fresh air in.

Take a look at your family schedule. Is there an opening this week, when everyone is together at home in the evening? If not, you have been slimed! If so, resist the temptation to slime, and hold that time slot open for family dinner, board game night or an evening with the neighbors. It won't be easy. You may be so accustomed to living in slime that fresh air will feel foreign and uncomfortable to you. You may have forgotten how to have a conversation, or just hang out. You'll want to just watch TV and veg out, the ultimate slime of all slimes. But if you'll push through those feelings and engage your family, friends or neighbors instead, you'll feel the fresh air start to come in. Slime is...well, it's slime, but you don't realize how disgusting it really is until you've experienced life for a while without it.

UPDATE: As it turned out, Tuesday night was open on our schedule and I had just written this post. We knew of a family on our street in which the dad was out of the country this week on business, and we knew the mom had her hands full with 4 kids. So I grilled burgers and we invited them over for dinner last night. Awesome. Relaxation, good conversation, and service all rolled into one dinner time. "Simple. Refreshing. Connecting." I felt like these words we use at the Springs were very true of our lives last night. Say no to slime and give it a try!