“Our young children still have one foot in the Eternal, in Heaven.
We can join them there, if we give ourselves enough time.”
– Sharifa Oppenheimer
We have been working lately on slowing down, simplifying our schedules, taking time to really be with each other. A few nights ago I read about the importance of living in the moment with young children – having enough space in our lives that we can join them in the wonder and amazement they still find in everything.
So I’ve been looking for those little moments and celebrating them – like today, when a dragonfly caught P’s eye, and he ran to me in total exuberance, “Mommy, Mommy, the most beautiful, very, very green, wonderful dragonfly just flew by me!” (He then asked if I could please upload the dragonfly to our computer so he could show his grandparents… but, we didn’t have the technology.)
On our walk this morning, he was amazed at all the pictures he was seeing in the clouds, and I honestly could not see any of them until he pointed them out. He would explain the pictures to me that, to him, were obvious. How could anyone NOT see an elephant and a hippo watching race cars zoom by on a track with clouds of smoke behind them?
I’m so thankful for all those little things, walks, chores together, exploring in the yard (see our little baby bunny we discovered in the garden yesterday below!) I had no idea a little child would have so much to reveal to me or that he would change me so.
For my husband and I, this idea of parenting with simplicity is so interwoven with our faith, it cannot be separated. And even as I am hoping to model values of simplicity, of connection with creation, of peacemaking, I notice it is often my sons who are setting the example for me. When we see the world as our children do, we live full of wonder and love; we live in the moment and experience the gift of life in all its fullness. I think I just might be getting a glimpse of that through these little eyes that follow me around all day. I’m so thankful for that!