Blog by Elke Govertsen of Mamalode.
I love walking my kids to school this time of year. It is cold; our noses turn pink and runny. The sky is a quiet blue. It smells like smoke and lawns and apples. We pick up leaves, each more beautiful than the last. It is a perfect five minutes of my day. It is like living in magic.
Today after the playground and the chaos and the bell ringing, I walked back home in the quiet. I walked by the leaves that my boys would have noticed. My mind had moved on to the day ahead and I missed out on the magic that would have been mine alone.
I got home, made my never-ending cup of tea and sat down to write. I realized then how much I wish I had carried over my boys’ enthusiasm for the stroll home. They teach me so much when I listen. I should have listened today.
They have an amazing ability to reignite wonder in me for things I had lost. Like Christmas. Or how cool ants really are—really. Or that a fort is a great thing. Or that a hose in the yard is everything you need to learn teamwork and science and construction and planning. Or that sometimes a walk should be a walk, not a getting-from-point-A-to-point-B. Or that being kind of late is really OK. Or that wearing shoes without socks feels good and the stinky feet are just stinky feet. And that farts really are funny—always.
I needed little people like this all along to remind me to just have some simple fun and notice the intricate details of light on water, or of the way the world is constantly playing as we blindly work around it.
Someone asked me this week about kids’ attention spans. I know they have a bad rap for being short. But I think that perhaps that is wrong. My boys can do the same simple thing over and over and over. I have moved on long before they have. “Mom watch THIS one!” rings out over our yard as the ten millionth back-flip flies. And to my sons each and every flip, or bug or toss of the ball, is exciting and deserves their full attention. And it deserves mine, if only my attention span was as long as theirs.
Bio: Elke Govertsen is the publisher of Mamalode which is a magazine and website for area moms. When not juggling her family, business, and the laundry (disclosure – there is no laundry being done whatsoever) Elke tries to eek out time to write, do yoga, and read like a fiend.