Mud Season
One of Royce’s favorite books is about two pigs, Toot and Puddle. Toot has wanderlust, and sets off on a round-the-world adventure, but Puddle is a homebody, so he stays home, even though he will miss his best friend terribly. The book is a series of postcards from Toot to Puddle–one for every month of the year–accompanied by a line or two about Puddle’s smaller, simpler adventures that month.
As a teenager, I thought my life would be big and grand like Toot’s. Filled with a fancy city life, an important and spectacular career, and adventures around the globe. So when I went off to college I did so believing I was leaving my simple, small town life behind for good.
But it turned out city life overwhelmed me. Traveling gave me anxiety. And I met a man who made small town life seem much, much more appealing.
My life is rather simple and mundane, lacking the grandeur and pizzaz I thought it would have. It’s repetitive and small and full of the tedious tasks that define both motherhood and bookkeeping. It’s messy, and loud, and muddy.
Though it’s only February, my entryway and porch are already covered in mud, making my house feel (and look) a bit like a pig pen, which drives me crazy. The kids track dirt through the living room, down the hallway, and I even found some in my bathroom the other day. But as I swept the entryway again today, I was reminded of these lines from Toot and Puddle: “Yes, spring had arrived. Puddle was having mud season. Yay!”
My kids love Toot (for more than just his adventures). But I always identify more with Puddle. He isn’t doing anything grand there at home, but he is finding joy in the simple pleasures of his life. In the seasonality of it. He ice skates on the pond in February and swims in that same pond in July. He celebrates his birthday in May with friends, makes his own Halloween costume in October, and plays in the mud in April.
My life may be simple, but it turns out I like simple. I like living a life that follows the rhythm of the seasons, take pride in working with land and animals, and enjoy the slower pace of small town living.
Spring is coming, bringing with it sunshine, longer days, tulips, a fresh crop of wobbly calves, and mud. Yay!
