Apart from banks, gold, potash, oil & gas, forestry, and lakes, Canada is rich with farms and ranches. In Ontario alone, there are close to 60,000 farms with types in field crops, vegetables and fruits, dairy or beef cattle, horse, poultry or combination of several etc. Smaller farms could generate from $25,000 to $250,000 in annual revenue while the larger ones could top up $1 million mark. In summer and fall time, a lot of the farms are open to the public whereby kids and adults could experience the life at farms by picking up fruits, feeding the livestock, and participating in other farm activities etc. We have been to several of these farms before. Brooks Farm is by far the biggest and has the most fun activities with straw jump, corn maze, pumpkin cannon, tractor train ride, fruits picking, pig race etc.
While driving along Highway 404, I caught my son's giggles at the backseat from time to time. Lately he has been hooked up with Tom and Jerry. Even with 30-40 minutes drive, he still insisted on bringing along the dvd disks to watch in the car. "What are the worry-free years for the kids!" I thought to myself. Time waits for nobody. It seems that those years belonged to us just a while ago. Without notice, we have inevitably stepped into a life stage as "sandwich" with our parents and our boss on the top, our kids and staff at the bottom and us in-between in family and at work respectively. After handling endless emails, meetings, projects, pressure from the boss and unsatisfactory performance by the staff during the day, we have to deal with our kids' academics, after-school programs, health problem and behavioural issues in the evening. While everything seems in order, our aged parents are suddenly calling sick. Everyday we are fighting like soldiers at all fronts. Long gone are the days of simplicity.
The kids were running around the farm, playing their favourites one by one. Straw jump, a small "mountain" with tunnels in-between simply made of layers of hay piles, amazingly attracted kids to spend the most time where they played tags up and down the "mountain" and in and out of the tunnels. With pieces of straws all over their clothes and hair, nobody seemed to care. Then they ran off to the Corn Maze with a wide-open mouthed pumpkin at the entrance. They exclaimed in awe when they found a large real pumpkin field at the end of the maze. They continued their fun with the corns by shooting them high into the sky at Corn Blast. At Zip Line, everyone of them seemed to become an explorer in the jungle zooming down the line with their tiny hands holding tightly onto the bar. From time to time, they passed by the goat pen, teasing the good-tempered goats and sheep with grass and feeding stock. Seemingly they were now grabbing the rare opportunity to be the ones in charge. After hours of play at different spots, they returned to Straw Jump with the same zest.
"I wish I could have that energy". I sighed to my friends.
"I could not believe that they could make so much fun out of this simple thing." gasped one friend.
"What an age of innocence!" another friend concluded.
I lay down on the bench made of hay. The sun cast lazy shadow of the Straw Jump onto the ground, reminiscent of a laid-back young man relaxing in a Laz-boy recliner. I suddenly recalled the words from a friend: "Keep some time and space to ourselves amid this busy world! We do deserve a break once in a while!"
When a breeze brushed gently over my hair, I closed my eyes. Forget about the meetings, projects, house chores, and even our children. The world will not end if we let go our responsibilities for a minute. The Age of Innocence, let me just savor the taste of you once again!
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