On the way to school today, my boys flitted from one topic to another almost seamlessly – like a bee flits from flower to flower.
We started our drive talking about favorite colors. My oldest claimed his favorite color was light blue. “Why light blue?” I asked. “Because light blue is the color of water and water is very important to nature.” This kid loves all things nature and animals. Every night, in fact, water is one of the things he is most grateful for alongside food and his family. He is nothing if not practical.
Not to be outdone, one of my twins chimed in: “I love light blue too! But also green and brown because they are also super important to nature – they are the colors of the trees!”
The third child said: “Eh brown is kinda boring to me. I like the colors of the flowers more than trees…. and flowers are super important!”
“And you know what’s super important to flowers?” the second boy chimed back in “bees!”
The discussion transitioned to all things bees (both real and in Minecraft) and this topic took us the rest of the way to school.
Their passion about nature and all its colors and interactions reminded me of one of my favorite poems by Mary Oliver. It starts with the line “My work is loving the world.” She goes onto describe many elements of nature that she looks at with wonder and with love. Midway through the poem she writes the following:
“Let me keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.”
Sometimes I wish I saw the world with as much wonder as the three little boys buckled in my backseat. Everything to them is still new and bright and colorful and worthy of their astonishment.
But maybe I still can if I try.
So today my prayer is to pause and pay attention to the colors around me. I pray to notice the bee pollinating the flower as well as try to see the light blue of the water my son sees and loves, the water that will inevitably fall once again from the sky today.
May you too stand in awe of creation today and notice and love every last detail.
