I saw that quote in a bathroom stall yesterday, and laughed, thinking of the weekend I had just spent with my almost 20 month old niece. Each morning we surveyed the backyard for animals, talked about what we saw, and she requested those that we didn’t. I think I severely disappointed her yesterday when I was unable to produce not one lion, bear, monkey, elephant, or snake. All I could find were the dogs and birds. Oh well. She did, however, tell me that my pup’s tail looked like a snake and laugh at her own joke. (All with animals sounds, gestures, and signs- she communicates remarkably well- language development is SO FASCINATING! but that’s a topic for another day…)
This morning I took the pups on a very windy walk. Risky business. Wind forces leaves and petals to fall off the foliage and fly around, which causes young four legged creatures to launch sporadically in attempts to catch them. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, the reaction here being the position of my rotator cuffs becoming compromised at alarming speeds.
One might think after the 93rd free flying leaf blew by the game would become old news. Turns out it doesn’t. The same thing again and again, but never perceived as the ’same thing’ by Jersey and Bailey.
At one point the idea went through my mind that if they were such intelligent animals how could they chase leaves on repeat? I quickly resolved that with the realization that very act is part of their inherent brilliance.
Show me a day when the world wasn’t new. -Sister Barbara Hance
