After school a couple of days ago, the kids and I walked to a nearby pond. A layer of ice coated most of the pond. Near the edges, the ice was thinner, and the kids discovered that with a stick, they could chip at the edges and break off ice chunks.

They piled the chunks behind them for later use. They also speared leaves, pretending they were hunting for food in the deep, wintry wilderness. They piled those up, too. “It’s fresh kill,” they said. Handy. 

Before long, they abandoned their hunting and returned to the edge of the pond. Ice chunks became the main draw, and they return to chipping and piling up a stash.

I walked with the dog around a manmade asphalt path while they worked.

When I looped back around, they were hurling the chunks and watching them pop and skid across the hard, frozen surface of the pond. Some of the chunks would shatter. Some would slide into the melted section near a drain. Some would swoosh across to the other side of the pond.

The kids used their sticks to shove some chunks forward, like a game of shuffleboard or curling, watching their polygon pucks slide toward the middle of the pond.

We were by ourselves the entire time, chipping, tossing, shoving, and cracking ice on a winter afternoon after school. We never saw another child exploring the area. A man walking a black lab passed by on the road, but that was it.

No one was around to imagine with us. No one else was with us to create a game out of nothing but sticks, dried leaves, and chunks of ice. Nobody was breathing in the crisp, fresh air or listening to the Shagbark hickory branches creak and sway.

Where are all the children?

I know it’s cold, and right now it’s very cold where I live. But I’m just curious, in general, does anybody go outside? Or do we all make a mad dash from the bus or the car to our homes, slam the door behind us, and make a mug of hot chocolate?

Not that I’d blame anybody for that decision. Because it really is cold.

I just wondered…as I sat inside sipping my own hot chocolate.