By Suan Lee Campbell FamilyLife Australia
Remember the days when a blanket was a beautiful castle, a fortress, a safe haven from the big bad wolf, a pirate ship and much more?
As a young woman, I remember a walk along the beach one wintry night, the rasping sand underfoot and the starry sky above. The static of an acrylic blanket and the strong arms holding it around my shoulders that sent my blood pulsing. It was the first time he held my shoulders and my tummy reacted strangely. I definitely felt the spaghetti we ate earlier, twirling around the meat sauce in my tummy. Wouldn’t life be just blissfully romantic if we could stay wrapped up in this blanket watching the stars and the rolling surf?
One year later, on our wedding day, we were given a big red blanket as a wedding gift. We quickly snuggled under the red blanket imagining life happily ever after. In the next few years, the blanket was not as comfortable as we first imagined. It took years of trial and error to adjust to loving and living under the red blanket. I liked it warmer, he liked it cooler. Sometimes the red blanket was stretched to its limit while we turned our ugly backs to each other, and edged away as far as we could. Year after year, we made our bed and smoothed out the red blanket as best as we could.
Then small bundles of joy arrived in fluffy bunny blankets. We had one small pink blanket that was easy to keep clean and then a blue blanket two years later. The little blue one took a lot of work and sometimes it got lost in a shopping centre or the village up the road. Our days were busy, happy and chaotic. Mine were full of Playdoh, packed lunches and playgrounds. His were full of meetings, meetings and more meetings. The red blanket was lost under the pile of housework, homework and office work. So the pink and blue blankets became a castle, a fort, a pirate ship and much more.
Blankets and beds became a fixture along with thumping music, stinky soccer boots and sports shoes. Our lounge and bedrooms overflowed with sleepover blankets for teens who could stay up all night and sleep all day. Wouldn’t life be just blissful if we could fold up the jumbled blankets in neat piles?
Soon, all too soon, they packed their blankets and CD’s and waved good bye. That took a few goes of course before they finally did leave! But then, suddenly, too suddenly, the house was ours again, just the two of us. We looked around and found our red blanket tossed aside in the rush of living and leaving. It was time to wash it and fluff it out again. We looked at each other, winked and smiled, “snuggle up time!”
Wouldn’t life be just blissful if we could snuggle up anytime?