Skyler asked the sweetest and oddly profound thing to me last night. I asked her if this weekend she wanted to help me plant some flowers outside. She said yes, and she wanted some “owange fwowers and pink fwowers!” Then, ever so seriously, she looked at me and asked “Can we plant them next to the moon?”
She loves the moon, and the joy in her face and voice when she spots the “big moon” as she calls it, is contagious. I, myself, haven’t gotten excited about seeing the moon in like, EVER, I don’t think, but now that it means so much to her, I can’t help but look for it nearly every night, and wish the clouds away when it’s dreary so she can see it.
I’m regretting to myself as I answered her with the obvious “no, flowers go in the ground and the moon is up high in the sky.” I realized she doesn’t know those limitations, and to her, anything is possible at this point in life. Her imagination isn’t yet constrained by logic, science, or fear.
I’ve thought about her own young thought process several times today, and how it’s so different than mine. Granted, we probably couldn’t survive long in a world on our own if we didn’t get how it worked, but as we grow up, we lose SO DANG MUCH of our energy, creativity and dreams.
And it occurred to me again tonight as I caught a documentary/concert of NKOTB’s recent reunion tour, of which [yes I’m admitting] I saw live TWICE in recent years. And I realized the reason I’m okay with admitting this and talking about fondly is because the NKOTB reunion concert(s) took me back to a childhood place where my mind was more like Skyler’s than it is now. Sure, I was old enough to know that you couldn’t plant flowers up by the moon, but I was young enough to dream, imagine, and question the unknown. I didn’t know the rules yet and I hadn’t experienced dashed hopes or a broken heart.
Skyler is such a vibrant and amazing little person. I’m constantly fascinated by her, and simultaneously humbled by what she can teach me at less than 3 feet tall and not even 3 years old.
So I’ve started trying to think “outside the box” tonight, wondering where outside our house I can hang a pot of flowers, so that at least on some nights and from her little point of view, they might actually appear to be planted next to the moon…
4 responses to “Planting Flowers by the Moon”
You have an amazing way of expressing thoughts into words, Lori. This is an incredible entry and it helps me to overlook some of Calvin’s annoying terrible two-year-old tendencies right now.
I love this post. I agree, sometimes I want to step back and have my toddler’s mind! I also love the hanging plant idea.
When I first read her statement I was thinking that she wanted to plant flowers by the “light” of the moon. I think a hanging plant would be a great idea.
This is the best blog entry you’ve written, I think. And yes, a window box! It’s brilliant!