When it feels wrong…choose another route.

Thankful. Thankful for fresh air, vitamin D from the sunshine and that these are my people I get to do life with.

I found myself frustrated yesterday morning when our initial plans for the day went array. The “new normal” of lately is new territory and a slippery slope. Our kids are watching the choices we make within it.

We had planned to head to our state park that reopened in the last week or so. We grabbed a pass then read the rules. Rules like – everyone must wear a mask on the property (including in vehicles) and no groups over 5 (including families, even though the distancing rules are 10). Rules that don’t make sense for a remote, open place. I read the comments of people removing masks in their cars being yelled at my rangers over megaphones that masks were required even in vehicles.

So we cancelled the pass. We couldn’t take our kids to conform to rules that go against the many things we teach them. We couldn’t take them to a location that we’ve taught them provides some of the purest oxygen requiring its visitors to breathe in their own CO2 instead of clean air. I’m a rule follower but these rules make no sense at all. I refuse to allow them to think masks in nature is the new normal.

We explained why we weren’t going and went to our neighborhood lakes and ponds instead. We enjoyed the fresh air, the vitamin D, and exercised in a place we had the freedom to do so without hindering what we know and believe to be true. It taught them that when something goes against what you believe is right, you can choose another route instead…and you’ll likely enjoy that route more anyways.