Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Plane!

Last Friday I was at soccer practice with my daughter and had my youngest son with me, as well. She practices at her elementary school's field, so I was over by the playground following my son around while she had her practice. We were balancing and walking along the concrete edge to the sandy area where the swings and other play equipment are when he stopped suddenly, looked up, and said, "Plane!"

I looked up, and sure enough, there was an airplane, way up in the sky. It was smaller than my pinky when held out at arm's length. But he saw it, and was very excited by it.

I got to thinking how it was that he managed to see such a little thing that was so far away and so far above his head, when it occurred to me that to his little two-and-a-half year old body, pretty much everything is up.

Then I got to thinking about how little kids have a tendency to notice things that we grown ups are either too busy to look at, too unobservant to notice, or too uncaring to consider. We don't often spend much time just looking around to see the planes soaring through the sky, the ants walking across the sidewalk, or the flowers waving in the breeze. Children seem to have a curiosity and a connection with the world around them, and I think it's a shame that we tend to lose that quality as we age, some far more than others.

Something to consider.

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