simple joys

Through my children, I see the world in a different light. My small children are exploring the world, discovering how it works and how they themselves work in the world. I watch them learn to jump. I watch them search through the rocks in the yard. I watch them feel water as it rushes over their hands while the bath tub fills up. I'm reminded how much there is to learn.

I am tickled by the simple joys they seem to find. Things that I don't think about at all, but are there in the world to be explored and enjoyed.

This afternoon, I pulled the couch away from the wall so I could vacuum under it. The two small children who are at home found this to be a delightful change (the moved couch, not the fact that I was cleaning behind it). They giggled as they ran laps around the couch. Tickled by the experience. Moving the couch is nothing in my life and means work to me, but they thought it the funnest thing they had done all day.

It doesn't rain here very often, but when it does my children run out into it. They love to feel the cold water splash on their arms and faces. They put on their swimsuits and run up and down the sidewalk. How wonderful to be free to run like that, feeling the rain, and laughing.

My oldest daughter had a shirt with green sequins on the front. One afternoon, she found if she stood in front of the glass door, the light would hit her shirt and send green sparkles all over the wall and ceiling. She danced and danced in the light. My youngest son would jump along the walls and try to catch the sparkles in his hand. My one year old would stand there and look at the green lights moving along the side of the wall. She was enchanted by it.

Simple joys that I have forgotten about and are re-discovering through my children. Now it is time for the joy of the nap.