Doris Lessin
Yesterday I spent a few hours at the beach with my favorite 5 year old. It was the most exhausting fun I have had in a long time.
Digging in the sand, schooching our butts on the sand in the shallow water until he was feeling brave enough to go deeper, catching him at the bottom of the slide until he determined he didn't need me to catch him. We laughed, we played and our only goal was to have fun and be silly, making up games as we went. With all his 5 year old astuteness he quickly figured out the breaks we took to go to shore to ch" eck on Grandma were also breaks for me and he began giving me one minute time frames for my breaks. Thankfully the little monster was not wearing his own watch!
My favorite moment came while we were playing in the sand though. Usingu our hands to scoop sand into a "castle" and our fingers to drill windows, I asked him how high we should build it. His solemn response? He looked up briefly at the clouds framed in blue and said "well actually I think we should build it higher than the clouds".
My reaction to his statement rippled through my heart, my mind. In that moment I was so incredibly grateful he had not yet learned to limit his wishes, his dreams and hadn't started to temper his wants with what others told him couldn't be done. My reaction was also sadness and regret that somehow as adults we condition ourselves to only wish within the limits we and the world around us have put in place.
A bit later when we were once again playing in the water, I snuck my hand over to his leg, giving it a little nip and then asked in mock horror "Did you feel that shark?" He giggled for a split second and then in complete seriousness put his little hand on my arm and said "Wait you are kidding me right?" Once I had assured him I was kidding it became a new game where we took turns pretending to be the shark.
I walked away from our day at the beach sandy, tired,, smiling and reminded of how amazing life is when your imigination has not yet been shut down, when sand castles can be dreamt beyond the clouds, when sharks could be in a pool and when your favorite color Skittle being handed to you by a tiny little finger is the best gift of all.
I wonder how different my world, our world, would be if we all kept a little more of this impossible blueprint in our hearts.
