Learning lessons from our little people

Our little people were out for a visit yesterday. My goodness, but the house comes to life when they walk in the door! They go straight to the hall cupboard where the toys are kept and promptly start dragging things out. Playtime commences. I think there are a few things that they enjoy the most when they visit our house and actually, neither of them are in the toy closet. One is feeding the goldfish in their big tank in the porch – they are very well fed on the days the boys visit and the other is going outside for a walk.

The little one is fairly insistent and if you aren’t watching closely, he’ll be out the door on his own without a thought for the cold. So coats and boots on and away we all go. There is just enough snow on the ground for the animal tracks to be quite clear so we tromp out back, following the pathway and we see squirrel tracks, little rabbit tracks, and fox tracks. We point out woodpeckers holes in trees, beetle tracks made visible by peeling bark, and one tree which has a great scar from a lightning strike.

The boys stop to look, measuring the animal tracks alongside their own little boot prints…I think they would walk for hours. They bend down and scoop up snow, throwing it overhead with wide smiles and giggles. Big brother runs ahead and when he gets too far, we call and he runs back. The boundless energy is astounding and when the grandparents have had enough, we coax them back to the house with promises of popcorn and hot chocolate.

There is something magical about walking through a quiet forest with little boys. Maybe it’s true with little girls too, we just don’t have any of those around. They are so excited by so many things that to us are common and everyday, but seen through the eyes of a small boy, they are new and exciting. There is such simple trust that when they come to a fallen tree too tall for their little legs to get over, that one of us will be there to help. When they have a question, I don’t think it crosses their minds that we might not have the answer. They have complete faith in us to keep them safe and to have a ready answer for whatever question they may have.

When do we lose that? That faith in the people around us? And what would the world be like if we could trust each other to care for and protect one another? Why do we ever wish that kids would toughen up because the world is tough? Why don’t we wish that they could live in a world that allowed them to keep that trust in humanity?

Want to know what a better world looks like? Take a walk with a small child. Let them put their hand in yours and see what wonders the world holds. Let the joy they have be your’s too, even just for a little while. Then hold that feeling close and let it make you more patient with others, kinder to those in need, and a little more like the kind of person most of us wish to be. The world is a much more wonder-ful place when we look at it through the eyes of a child. We adults forget too quickly. We should work on that.

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