When you see something through the eyes of a child, it really can feel like you're seeing or experiencing it all for the first time. It's one of their many gifts, this perspective adjustment. I love a beautiful day as much as the next person, but when you get to really experience a beautiful day as freely as a little kid can? Well, there's a whole lotta new meaning thrown in there. I get caught up in schedules and activities and routines like we all do (and I like it all. No, really, I do.), but when any of us stop, slow down, and smell those ever-loving roses? Mmmmmh, it's so good. Like my rather terrible driving, I tend go super fast and then slow down and then go super fast and then slow down... and this cycle works for me. I have no idea why I need to constantly pump the gas pedal of life, but it makes me run smoothly, unlike my car. We're entering into one of those periods that just feels slower. As the weather gets nicer and school gets closer to the end, it feels like we're just being a lot more. We're still out and about and visiting but we're doing it more deliberately. And there is that good old examined life popping back in for a visit.
We went up to San Juan Island a few weeks back and my goodness, it was just simply grand. The day was perfect, with Mainetastic (that's a word, you know) blue skies, mild weather, and no real plan. It made me feel plugged into life, oddly enough, being so far out of our norm. But it was a day that called for just sitting and watching and engaging with the two small and one big person in front of me and that was it. No phones, no books, no computers... just us and sand toys. Little details have become etched in my mind and it's not one of those days that will melt into any other day. I think of our life as a rich tapestry, with our experiences and activities and people creating a really beautiful, interwoven fabric. Every once in awhile, though, there is a big, bright, bold stitch of color that doesn't blend in and those are those big memories that just won't ever get forgotten. I was talking with Mary recently, and she said her girls' teacher asked the parents at a meeting to think of a childhood memory. What pops into your mind? In my mind, and most people's I've asked since, it's some memory of being outside. It's some pop of natural color in their life's tapestry. Rarely, although certainly possibly, it seems that our favorite image of childhood involves a toy or an object, but rather it's an experience. Big or little, it's something that made us feel connected to the world and it etched itself strongly in our mind's eye. I don't know if this day will be my kids' image of their own childhood as they get older, but it might very well be my image of theirs.
Well, hello there beach.
Miss "I need absolutely no coaxing to don my swim wear" Molly
Booty in the air, shovel to ground
Here is the "Man alive, it's rally cold in there" sequence. It goes like this: Hop in, come out, stroll in deeper, RUN out (nearly biting it in the process).
Checking out what all this freezing water hullabaloo was about.
Spotting "creatures"
They work hard for their (sand) money
Really, really hard
Boss and laborer. Again.
A little eye candy for the grown ups, too (of course, the pictures don't do the view justice):
The Olympics in the background
Driving down to the beach, with one of the last naturally occurring prairies in the northwest to greet you
\
No description needed. Hubba hubba.
2 comments:
Looks like such a fun day!
What a great spot - and what happy kiddos
Post a Comment