I was talking with a close friend the other day. We were marveling at how small children cut to the essence of things, in such a basic way. It's beautiful really. What brought this up was, he observed his granddaughter trying to catch gulls on the beach. Whereas adults of course know, that's pretty much an impossibility. But small children not only don't know this, they don't care. Truth is, there are child thought processes and there are adult thought processes. Somewhere we lose our ability to marvel, and maybe even worse...we worry about what others think of us. It is a terrible thing in the adult world to be embarrassed. I suppose that is as it should be. And yet...I love children's free thought. In therapy I would probably be diagnosed as missing being a child. I know this, I sure as hell relate to them.
And then there was today. We have had some not so bad weather the past week, after almost three months of steady on snow...and cold of the Arctic kind. It even got up to 66 degrees one day last week. This morning when I got up...I looked out the window...snow. Ferking snow. Slushy, rainy type snow. It WAS NOT predicted. Much of it melting, but still...snow.
I got everyone up...my wife off to work...my oldest daughter off to school, and then I took our six year old to school. It was still snowing...those great big flakes about the size of a quarter...you know the ones. In my mind, I am cursing the gods, or aliens, or the holes in the atmosphere...whichever applies. Cursing because, now the revised weather prediction is...2-3 days of this. NO NO NO, I am ready for Spring. I saw a robin the other day. I saw geese flying to...Alaska, honking, "no Palin, no Palin". I jinxed the whole thing because I put up the snow shovels. Damn.
Our routine is, I sit in the car after letting my daughter out and watch until a teacher comes out (we have had some pervert scares lately...yes, even here in the plain Plains). My daughter likes to be first out there waiting for school to open. About 5 or 6 other kids showed up, and my daughter dropped her back pack, ran out into the middle of the compound in front of the entrance...opened her mouth to catch...snow flakes. The rest of the kids follow suit. Massive numbers of little mouths opened heavenward, trying to catch snowflakes. Beautiful! I love them all.
That's all I need to say...holes in the sky or no.
BTW-that is not my daughter in the photo...but she highly resembles her. I have a policy of not posting actual photos of my family here. Yep, paranoid.
48 comments:
I never got spring fever, not once this winter. I guess because I love snow and we got alot of it! But now, it's in the 50's and the daffodils are up about 3 inches, the cherry tree is full of buds too, Spring is here in NJ! So, like you, I don't want to see any more snow til next December!
Sue---Amen to much of that...not all :0
Spring's not quite here yet. It's a muddy mess.
Little kids are the best. I love to watch kids run at the mall. Can you imagine if adults just started running like kids do? Hahaha.
diane---Maybe we should do the same more often...adults, that is.
It will get here, even if I have to form a posse and hunt that elusive son-of-a-gun down. Spring will not elude me!
By the way, just go for it and do something goofy. It's fun. We're a household full of goofs here, only watching each other :-)
I spent most of the summer splashing around doing things like diving after quarters I kept throwing into the pool. It's still fun, by the way. Plus, bonus! It makes the neighbors a teeny bit leery...so plenty of peace and quiet in which to splash around ;-)
L o s---You definitely get it.
We are a month behind with spring, but it's showing it's childlike head this week, come in spring have a seat, can I get you something, please stay awhile, at least until summer gets here.
Here is southeast Georgia in mid-February, we had first snow in a generation, so I did see families out just walking in the three inch deep winter wonderland (not much by Midwest standards), probably the next time it snows here, the kids I saw, will have kids.
Holte---You are correct...generational. I grew up in Jacksonville and I can remember a "school closing" snow once as a kid. Must have been about an inch. Not a lot of snow there, as you say, but it does get pretty damned chilly in those parts in winter. Of course the Chamber of Commerce doesn't want that information spread round the rest of the country.
How many did you catch JJ? Having never actually seen you, somehow I imagine you've got a pretty big mouth!
No, no... my bad. Beautiful post.
Mr. C---Well, I could say...takes one to know one, asshole. But...ok, I will...
To everyone. For the first time in my 5 years of blogging I have just banned someone from my blog. Lisa is her name. She resides at: http://readmylips-lisa.blogspot.com/
if you are interested in seeing her zero blog.
She came over here and made fun of this post, which was about my child. I won't put up with that, particularly from a right-wing ignoramus. Oh, and Lisa...FUCK YOU.
I was just about to say how much I enjoyed your writing! (Damn people anyway. Lisa you suck.)
No one in their right mind would make fun of a child to the parents face. Lisa seems to have no dignity and a loose screw.
A child can walk down the street and talk to an imaginary friend and no one will say anything, most will smile. I dare anyone to do that, and look for smiles.
Ok, ok, try this tell you co workers you have an imaginary lover. That will bring smiles and a lot of free space at the coffee counter.
Ok, ok, ok, maybe say you have a friend sitting right next to you, and he is a big white rabbit and his name is Harvey and you want the bartender to serve him a drink. That fella makin' out the Baker Act papers will have a grin on her face.
Children are born perfect and we ruin them one day at a time, until they are just like us.
Love is the opening door, and they abound with it.
Visible after, AFTER, AF*****gTeR aPProval??????
After, After the flood maybe. If I catch up to Lisa I'm gonna find her inner child kick it's little ass.
AFter Approval, What Fresh Hell is this?
kate---Thank you. Forget Lisa...most people try to. She has been banned elsewhere also.
Punch---At least for now. Only way I can prevent Lisa from commenting. Sorry.
no problem, trouble is I posted a really nice post about chrildren and when I clicked i got the visual message. Guess I stepped on that comment. Jokes on me.
The essence of my comment is Children are born perfect and we ruin them one day at a time.
Ah jj, you really need to be silly once in a while. Try and remember the wonder, keeps you young. I run every day and there is one traffic signal I stop at that gets kind of busy. It's a long one, so I do silly dancing waiting for the crossing signal, people get a kick out of it or they don't not my worry, because I do. This almost 29yr old cares not either way because it is fun for her. Lisa is a putz so don't worry about her being the turd in your beautiful punch bowl. Just flush it away.
Oh there it is! This visual after life is wierd.
Punch---Amen bro.
Jess---You nailed it. That is absolutely what the post was about...the beauty of being a child.
As to the turd, flushed it (not sure Punch is going to take to the punch bowl analogy - har, har, har).
Well, who put the benzedrine in mrs murphy's ovaltine.
BTW that is Mr. Punch to you.
I can't believe you called Mr. C. an a-hole, giggle. It's kind of like the Fonze calling Mr. C an a-hole.
I purposely did not use the capital letter when describing Loony Lisa. Punch this was not meant to offend you, just describe what "teh Lisa" is all about IMO.
Punch---And that is Roy to you boy.
diane---Well I can't truly attest to that description...it's hearsay...I hear Punch say that about him all the time. HE (P) paid me to say that.
Jess---You can't offend Punch...he's been offending for years. Interesting thing I found out about lisa. I looked at my sitemeter and discovered that she lives in Canada. At least that is the country of origin at her IP address. A Canadian Teabagger? Odd.
I do silly things once in a while. Sometimes it's spur of the moment, when I was standing in line (outside) with Tyler to buy WWE tickets, and I jumped up and down quickly and said, "I'm so excited!"
Other times beer is sometimes involved.
We have right wing assholes here, belive me. Stupid voters put one in the Prime Minister's Office...
Doug---I for sure relate to the beer thing ;-)
The thing about lisa is, she presents herself on liberal blogs as being a U.S. conservative, and all of her comments parrot U.S. conservative media. I was taken aback with the Canadian origin for that reason. In a way, that would explain her naivety about U.S. Politics I suppose. In either case, she's outta here.
Sure, sure he did (pay you).
I too miss that childlike state of mind, where you're just totally into the moment; no worrying, no analyzing. I remember that mindstate, but it's hard to get it back.
diane---OK, you got me...it was Mr. C himself that paid me to call him an aholeo. Surely you've gotten the email regards this strange quirk, and offering money to say it...hmmm, wait, maybe that was another offer...the one from Nigeria.
Tom---It is indeed, even when they are around to remind you.
JadedJ...I always check back in on your comments. They are so very insightful. It has occured to me in this early morning,near sleep state of awake, that we, the commentors, have not, Accentuated the positive.
We have hinted at, nodded toward, tiptoed over, scooted by, the positive. Hell, one went so far at to trash the whole Idea.
I find myself askin' "Are we a bunch of conservative republiskins, only in it for the money?"
Just sayin'
Punch---Well hell son, I take back every thing they ever said about you...most of it anyway.
I'm in no shape to comment coherently, but stopped by anyway :-)
intell---That's okay. That would be my condition as well...when posting...so everything washes out. Glad you are back.
Approval my ass!!~!@!!!
Oh come on! intelli! bring it on!
I could be wrong.
Hey, It could Happen.
Diane is right when JJ says Diane is right. What kind of low-life blogger calls his followers assholes? Huh?
WHAAAAAT!! AFTER FRIGGIN APPROVAL!!! Is this the same guy who blasted me for making him type one of those squiggly things because of spam? Is this the same guy who pompously declared that we should have the backbone to face our tormentors?
WHAT A FRIGGIN WIMP! RUN OFF BY A LITTLE GIRL NAMED LISA.
So I go to check this Lisa out and it turns out she isn't even home. After approval my ass.
Mr. C---The ones who have asshole followers...who have big mouths...pompously. Get it yet?
Too far?
Mr. C---Yep, same guy. Get over it. Btw, you may have noticed that I am facing a tormentor at this very moment.
Mr. C---Tried to tell you that. Check out Jess' comment. Ms lisa is a troll that is not welcome over here...in addition to several other blogs. Her MO is, drivel which has nothing to do with the post, designed to piss you/one off. I make a post about my child, and she starts that shit over here. When she comments on other blogs, you can almost see the rolling of eyes from those who are familiar with her. I'm not going to spend my time responding to the bitch any longer, here, or on any other blog. This one I control. So if it's too inconvenient, I am sorry dude.
Beautiful, yes. They know no embarrassment now, but it will soon be your turn to horriblly embarrass them - trust me, wait 'til the teenage years set in!
It's very rare for our tiny island to have snow, so much so, when it did hit, not a snow shovel was anywhere to be found, the stores don't stock them! I found us snowed in for a week (snow tyres, what are they?). I confess, the novelty forced me to make snow angels in the garden (smile).
Shrinky---Our oldest daughter turns 13 in two months. We are already getting the hints of "teen angst" in our daily lives. We thought for sure we had a year or so before this set in. Wrong!
Egads, no shovels! I can understand no motorized snow clearing machines, but not even shovels...
Yes, snow angels, our yard was full of them a month ago :-)
Kids know something we don't. We think these are just plain snowflakes but they know the snowflakes come in various sweet flavors like vanilla, chery and strawberry just like they know there's a Santa Claus and an Easter Bunny.
Chimp---Very true. They also know that chimpanzees can hold public office...high public office.
I know, we often forget how to enjoy the present, something kids seem to know how to do instinctively. That said, I do sympathize with your reaction to the snow - we've had enough of bad weather here as well. I hate to tell you but here in New Jersey it's about 70 degrees and sunny. (Don't worry, it's getting colder again starting Sunday but I am definitely going to enjoy these few days of spring weather!).
Mauigirl---That's ok about the snow. Today is it 74...with forecasts for tomorrow and Saturday of...snow. I am seeing robins and buds on trees. So Mr. Snow is outta here soon.
Must drop in here more often jj, I miss the banter. We're well into autumn here, the leaves are turning red and the temperature is dropping, hope it helps send spring your way that bit quicker.
Okay, apologies for this being a third-hand quotation, but after your remarks about kids I had to do it. It was sent to me by a friend on Gchat, from a friend of hers:
Wed morning I was taking Trav to school and it was sprinkling out. Chey sang "rain rain go away". At the end, Trav asked me "why doesn't Jesus make it stop when we sing that?" I explained that Jesus knew we need the rain for the plants so that's why he doesn't stop it. Jesus knows what we need... without missing a beat, he goes "then why doesn't he know that I need a nicer Mommy then?"
Lou---So glad to her from you. Autumn is a great time of the year for sure. It's the follow up that I always dread. But that's my "adult" attitude at work. It's a good thing that I have children around me. They adjust my attitude, frequently.
BTW---I am equally guilty regards keeping up with my favorite bloggers, so I to need to visit more often :)
Simon--That is poignant...which is something children do well in such an innocent way. I do love them.
Post a Comment