Life and Times of the Fireflies: Summer Highlights - Facing Fears at Ratanga Junction

The face of fear!! Slingshot with my nephew...

Oh my! What a week it has been!! We will soon be entering our fourth week of school and already seem to be entangled in the challenges and pressure that the school year brings. I'm finding it rather calming and therapeutic to take a break from all the mayhem of the week to recap some of my favourite holiday moments that have passed by. It offers me at least some respite, knowing that we all had a wonderful break, and offers some hope that at the end of it all, we have new experiences to look forward to...

Ratanga Junction has become an annual family pit stop for us. I have watched the kids progress from the baby rides, to the moments of making the height requirements of the more adventurous ones...and done it all over again with little Zee! I've endured disappointment when my favourite rides closed down, and the exhilaration of tackling ones I didn't dare try before. I have trekked across the terrain countless times, pushing prams, holding hands, letting them go and each time the kids manage to persuade me to try something new!

Perhaps the best part of it all is that, all these fresh and new adventures I get to experience with my kids. That for a change, it's not me encouraging them to push their boundaries, but them encouraging me to do things I never dreamt of doing before. That while I may be teaching them about life and balance and a calm existence, they are re-teaching me how to be alive and live in the moment and in the midst of it all, helping me face my own fears!

So thank you kids, for reigniting my sense of adventure and helping me stare my fear of heights in the face! I'm not quite sure I am over it, but I'm a helluva lot closer to conquering it for good!