Time of Wonder

There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.  ~Elizabeth Lawrence

Whenever it’s an unusually beautiful day or when we have Eyre family in town we always head up to Newburyport to spend some time with the Timothy family.  Sweet Eva Timothy is the closest to an adopted sister I’ll ever have.  Saren met her on her mission in Bulgaria, she came to the US for college and stayed with my family and ever since she has been a dear sister friend.  I love it that she lives so close.  I love it that she lives in one of the most charming and surrounded by beauty towns on earth, I love it that my kids love her kids so much and play in the wide open for hours together.  Most of all I love her approach to life.  She is so happy and grateful and really truly lives every minute of life.  You can’t help but drink in all the stunning details of our world when you’re around her.  She sees them all and opens her arms wide to catch their beauty.

(and she has an incredible talent at capturing what her eyes see with her camera….check out her magic here)

The thing I might appreciate about her best lately is her approach to childhood.  She knows that her children are bursting with wonder and she opens up days, stretched long in front of them, full of pockets of wonder for them to discover. 

It’s going to be 67 today, in November, so, of course we’re headed up in a few hours to enjoy the beach with her.  I can’t wait.  I’ve never regretted an adventure with the Timothys.  We always come home with our thirst for wonder quenched.  Exhausted and happy, full of sunshine and wind.  These pictures are from a trip at low tide on an Indian summer day in late September.  The kids spent hours hauling all this driftwood into one spot so that they could build a “tent” and start a “fire.”  Eva has taught me so much about seeing the world through a child’s eyes.   She has helped me see sparks of curiosity and wonder in my children and helped learn how to protect those sparks in my children. 

We’ve come a long way walking down these board walks since this trip way back when Charlie was tiny.

One day I’ll make a collage of all our crystals beach days together.  I want to remember all that we’ve marveled at together as we’ve grown with our children through so many magical days.  My parents came into town this fall and we headed up for an afternoon with Eva and her kids.  We ate yummy food at their house and talked while the kids explored their backyard, lost in the wildness of it.  Then we walked across the street to this old historic but still working farm.  They volunteer to go and feed the animals and gather the eggs every Tuesday night, so we got to go with them.  Aside from the fight my kids had over who got to keep the one precious egg it was awesome.  It made me want to just move in next door.  What a childhood her kids have!

I’ve been thinking a lot about the wonder of childhood lately and I wonder if I am providing enough of it stuck in our stuffy house surrounded by other houses with vinyl siding.  Long days filled with exploration and unstructured space and time are few and far between with the business of school and stuff and rules and all the ridiculous worries about childhood safety.   Part of me longs to move next to a big meadow and let my kids run free till dinner.  This is when we all feel alive. 

We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it.  ~George Eliot

How do let wonder into your children’s childhood?  I’d love to know.