The Toy Motorcycle

My husband and I spent the weekend cleaning up the backyard, clearing the many dead branches and some entire bushes after the brief but very cold winter. Our fruit bushes were hardest hit. We will get some new blueberry bushes, our strawberries did fine, because they were growing in the greenhouse. It was very satisfying to go through the entire 1\4 acre and have a very good idea of what condition our trees and bushes were in. I turned my attention to the inside of the house. I had finished cleaning and dusting our son's room and was finishing our bedroom. It was down to a set of shelves that held a lot of sentimental items, like pictures and little objects that held memories going back almost 25 years. I came across a small toy Harley Davidson motorcycle, that was a favorite of my son when he was a toddler. It made me think of my husband's Yamaha Virago now parked in the garage. He parked it there after our son was born in1992. We used to go around on that motorcycle all over Austin, Texas, where we met and where we both were getting our master's degree. Our very first date, March 9th, 1985, we went out on that motorcycle. It was so much fun. My husband changed his life a lot for me when we got married. He was a bachelor at 35, and deciding to get married, and start a family, and give up his motorcycle when our son was born, was quite a change. We have been married 28 years this summer, and he has been a very steadfast husband and father. People often think of courage as in very brave, attention getting events, and they are certainly part of what courage is all about. But there is a different kind of courage that people display every day. Husbands, wives, fathers , mothers who devote their lives daily to their families, day after day, whether they always feel like it or not. In that sense , my husband is a brave man, as is every loving husband and father out there, and as is every loving wife and mother out there. Seeing the toy motorcycle was a touching reminder that my husband chose to be a devoted family man, devoted to our son and me. All around this town are brave people who probably do not consider themselves so, but to believe in your family each and every day, as a father, a mother, whether you are single mom or dad, or married, is challenging and takes a lot of strength and determination. And a lot of courage.