see the wind

On nice days, we lay the quilt on the ground under the shady oak tree outside.  We sit and watch the world around us. He chases the bugs and collects sticks. She kicks and coos with delight.  I watch, revel, and take pictures.

His mind is curious, an explorer by nature, he is a child and a boy.  He believes he can climb very tall trees and wonders where the bugs go when they sink into the cracks on the sidewalk.  The world is alive and ready to be learned.

A breeze is often blowing in from the lake down the street, filling the leaves with a joyous rustle, a summery tune.  One day, he pointed as he watched them dance.  I told him, that’s the wind in the leaves.  Wind, he responded in his own way.  Now whenever he looks out and sees the world caught up in a flutter, he says, wind. I don’t correct him, because I’m beaming with delight.  His mind free from the haunting of impossibilities is so pure, vivid and mesmerizing.

Last night, we were visiting my mom and as he looked out the windows of her third floor home, the trees below danced to a melody only they could hear.  She asked, What do you see?
Wind, he answered.

She was taken back by his answer and laughed out loud, because every adult knows that you really can’t see the wind.  Adults are silly like that, how they get all sensible and such. Then a sense of pride washed over her face at the wonder that is her grandson.

But children, they are eager to soak in the magic of life, optimists by default, ready to discover the great big world. They are sponges and they hang on our every word.  Words about trees and words that affirm them.  Like many, I read The Help and was so moved at the love that Abileen had for Mae Mobley. When her own mother wanted little to do with her daughter, Abileen, the maid, took it upon herself to instill in that girl a very crucial message. “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.”  She told her every chance she could, but maybe it only took once for her to capture that affirmation and store it deep inside.

We have this great opportunity to pour into these little lives, these messy, little, exhausting darlings and if we are intentional, they will grow up to believe that they are all the things we tell them.  They will see the goodness in people and in themselves, they will find truth, beauty, and hope.
In a world were so many have traded in the possibility of magic for the realism of sensible, they will see the wind.

P.S. The most beautiful post.