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| Our family Minivan. |
When I think about my family and how we all function
together,
it makes me think about our minivan.
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| Dad's the driver. |
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| Mom's the navigator. |
We have 4 kids, so each child is a wheel. My husband's the driver and I’m the navigator. This is true for real
life. He’s the provider for our family and I’ve been the one
that steers our life.
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| Dual steering wheels. |
There are times that I feel like our van should be like a
student driver’s car with a steering wheel, brake and gas pedal for both the
driver and the passenger because we both want to be the one in charge. There are
times that my husband is driving, but he needs me to hold the wheel so he can
blow his nose or get a drink. In real life that occurs when he’s sick, hurt or
out of town.
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| Tires need special care. |
The kids each being a wheel actually fits very well
with our family. If one wheel gets out of balance it starts to affect the
entire vehicle. It starts pulling that direction, and can sometimes even slow
us down or completely throw us off track. We’ve had a time where all 3 of our
older kids were going through a rough time, (NICU stay, leukemia, major acting
out) and it really affected the rest of us. There’s a light that stays on when
a tire has low air and if I can take care of that light quickly, then the
problem doesn’t grow into something bigger and need more work to correct. Just
like life. If one of the kids is going through something rough, if we help them
with it when it’s smaller it’s easier to take care of rather than when it’s huge
and out of control. We have a spare tire and I feel that that’s the child that
didn’t make it to our family. I think
he’s waiting for us and will always be a part of our family even if he’s not a
physically used part of our van right now.
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| Fueling up with the right fuel. |
Our van needs fuel to keep going. Sometimes we find
the best top of the line fuel and we function better. Other times we’re lazy and we put in whatever we can find and then our vehicle starts
to act up and doesn’t run quite right. This is true for our family. Just like our van
needs good clean fuel, our family needs family dinner at the table
together most nights, movie nights snuggled up with popcorn and treats, games
nights, working together, camping together. If we don’t get this good fuel then
we start to not run as smoothly.
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| Maintenance is so important for our van. |
We need to perform routine maintenance on our van, just
like we need to with our family. Maybe one part of the vehicle needs some extra
attention to get back in line with the others. A wheel might have a nail in it,
or the driver needs a stretching break or the navigator needs a nap. When we
look out for each other and see what the others need then we can all work
together in harmony. We need to take care of each part of the van separately and
as a whole. If one tire has a nail in it, we don’t need 4 new tires, no we
just need to put the extra care and attention into the one tire with a nail in
it to get it working correctly. What’s under the hood? To be honest I don’t
know much about what’s under the hood, but I know that there are lots of
working parts that all need to work in harmony to make the van run. These fall
under maintenance because we need to make sure fuels are clean and topped off,
that we have no infestations of animals and that we’re checking to make sure
things are lubricated. If we perform routine maintenance then the van will be able to drive better for longer without any major problems.
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| Hazards brought by other drivers. |
Even if we do our best to have our van physically at its
prime and ready for the roads, there are other hazards we can’t plan for that
can affect and even damage our van. We can’t plan for the other driver who didn’t
get their maintenance done and their brakes didn’t stop them at the light. Or
the driver who is so distracted in their vehicle that they weren’t watching
where they were going and ran into us. Or the car who is spewing black smoke all
over the road and it gets into our vents and
into our van for us to breathe the
toxic waste they’re spreading around. When this happens we close the vents and
turn off the air until the air around us is clean again. We do this in real
life when people are using foul language, a movie is not what we should be
watching, friendships might need to be reconsidered, or more attention given to
others so they can get the maintenance their vehicles need to function
properly.
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| Toxic smoke spread by other vehicles. |
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| Bugs, scratches and dings. |
Even if we try our hardest our van has marks on it
from cars doors, bike handles, sticks and it’s in need of a wash most of the
time. This is our life. We all fall down, get scraped, get hurt from playing
sports, smell and need to be washed, have crazy hairs that stick out and our
house is usually in need of a straightening up and the floors are dirty most of
the time. We could spend all our time making sure that the outside of our van
is always clean and mark free, but that’s not us. We live life and if there are
a few marks and some dirt around the wheels, it shows that we’ve lived and
loved hard and enjoyed life just like our van enjoys all the adventures it’s
been on. I will say though that I have a line I say that let's me know when the grim on the van is past the point of everyday living. "When you're an inch away from the van and the dirt jumps onto you, it's time to wash it." This usually happens after driving on dirt roads and driving in the winter. This is the same with our family. Sometimes we get dirtier and need to stop and take the time to do a deeper clean to help us feel calm and ready to continue on.
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| Getting fixed at the body shop. |
Our van is going to age, just like our family.
Eventually we’ll be taking the tires off as our children reach adulthood. At
that point we’ll have to get new tires. Not in the sense of getting new kids,
but we’ll have to let them go and get a replacement tire and really watch to
make sure that we can keep the vehicle in balance during this time. Over time
we’ll probably get some rust and we might need to have some bodywork done on
the van
just like as our bodies’ age we sometimes need a surgery to keep us
working in top shape. We might need a new knee, or an organ needs to come out
or we need a transplant. These can all add stress and cost money, but they are
important to be prepared for so they don’t knock us down and take us out of
commission for too long. Just last Friday I had surgery because my body wasn't doing what it was supposed to be doing and I needed to have something removed to help me live better. We were watchful and knew that I would need this surgery, so we prepared ourselves before to make the recovery time less stressful.
Photo credits.
Photos without credit given below are my own photos.
Dual steering wheels
https://www.google.com/search?q=dual+steering+wheels&espv=2&tbm=isch&imgil=6mEN_oFFZSQC_M%253A%253BQhOa2xfhvLdynM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.nairaland.com%25252F1994023%25252Fwhat-think-steering-wheel-photo&source=iu&pf=m&fir=6mEN_oFFZSQC_M%253A%252CQhOa2xfhvLdynM%252C_&usg=__Yr-49Q5hcmdFmvg4xv_HTC-UC4c%3D&biw=1920&bih=974&ved=0ahUKEwiJhL_BsaPPAhVh2IMKHdOJAXwQyjcIPg&ei=tgXkV4nRLeGwjwTTk4bgBw#imgrc=6mEN_oFFZSQC_M%3A
Worn out engine
Accident picture
Truck with black smoke
Body shop
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