What Is Front Porch Attitude

 by: Chris Sutton

What is front porch attitude? Well, it's not an easy thing to explain, but I'll see if I can try to explain it by telling you a story.

Before my wife and I moved from Texas to Oregon, we owned a beautiful house that was built in the early 1900s. As was common in those early days, our house had a large L-shaped font porch. The sides of this porch came up about 3 feet and it had screening up to the roof. It had beautiful banisters and it was totally enclosed.

During the evening, my wife would work at the local Waldenbooks until 10 p.m., and I would stay at home with our four year old daughter, Jessica. Most nights, Jessica and I would sit out on that front porch in my large rocking chair waiting for her mom to come home as I rocked her to sleep. The chirping of the crickets and the croaking of the frogs was usually relaxing enough to help Jessica fall asleep before Mom ever got home.

However, on quite a few occasions, we would get to experience a good old Texas thunderstorm as we rocked away the hours till mom came home. Now, if you have ever experienced a Texas thunderstorm, you'll know what I'm talking about when I say they WERE an experience. Lots of thunder! Lots of lightning! Lots of rain! Lots of wind! Basically, not something you would normally sleep through.

At first, Jessica didn't really like those thunderstorms! I imagine they can be pretty frightening for a little four year old girl; however, she would sit on dads lap and snuggle deeper into her blanket. She eventually got used to those thunderstorms. In fact, she even started to like them. To this day, she loves thunder and lightning; although, we don't get a lot of that here in Oregon. Today, Jessica is 23 years old and she has very fond memories of those times that we sat in that rocking chair on that front porch.

So what is front porch attitude? It's calm in the midst of a storm! It's knowing that no matter what your circumstances, life is good! It's not being afraid! It's seeing things with a positive mental attitude! Front porch attitude is, basically, living life as it was meant to be lived!

Do you have front porch attitude?