Hard Things

Before I forget:
I have to tell a quick story about Wildkid.
When we were hiking in southern Utah a month ago, I was walking along the trail with Wildkid close behind me. A big gust of wind whipped by and snatched my hat off my head, sending it tumbling along off the trail.  I yipped, and went scrambling after it, letting out a few more yips for dramatic effect.  I captured the errant hat and hustled back to Wildkid.  I pulled my hat back on my head and started off down the trail.  Then I heard Wildkid's little voice say, "Mom, maybe you better not wear your hat right now, just hold it in your hands." I smiled and asked him "why?", wanting to hear his reasoning.  What he said stopped me in my tracks.  He said:
"Because you're just so fragile to me."
Knowing and loving that he is very protective of me, I asked him why he thought I was so fragile.  I was expecting to hear something like, "because your're a girl" or "because you broke your hips" or something like that. No.
 He said, "Because you never do anything hard."  Yeah.
As I attempted to pick up my jaw from the red dust, I had a big list of "hard things" go through my mind, things that I've done.  At the top of the list, #1, was not having my hips crushed and dragging my bloody corpse to my cell phone, it was not giving birth to this boy, still standing on the trail....no.  At the top of my list of  "The Hard Things I've Done in My Life" , the first thing to go through my mind, was hiking the Grand Canyon.  (More on that later).  I realized my son had never actually seen me do most of the things on my list.  It made for a contemplative hike back to the trailhead.  Hard things indeed.