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I spent the afternoon babysitting my youngest granddaughter, Serena, the other day while my daughter was away. We were outside and Serena's sharp eyes spied a budding beehive on the awning of the garage. She immediately wanted to know how the bees had managed to “stick” it there, wondering if they use glue like we do? And where was the nectar? How did they carry it, did they ever lose their way, where would all of them stay till their “house” was complete and so on and on and on.
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I couldn’t quite answer all of her questions, but we stood for nearly
an hour, watching as bees came and went, to and fro from flowers in the
garden, slowly adding to their hive, buzzing along busily. My normal
housekeeping instincts, which would have been to smoke the bees out in
fear of any attacks, were suspended as I got caught up in Serena's
fascination with the bees' process of home-building that hot afternoon.
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Later we cleaned out the fish tank, a chore that is usually a dreaded mundane activity for me, but was transformed with Serena's help into a cross between a science expedition and a “house-warming” party for the fish as they entered their fresh tank. It nearly ended in tragedy when we dropped “Freddy” the goldfish and our cat came running over to investigate and give him “artificial resuscitation” if necessary – but we rescued Freddy just in time and restored him to the cool depths of his newly cleaned home.
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When my daughter came to pick up Serena, I could only feel surprise at how quickly the time had passed and how much I had enjoyed the afternoon of what I would have called “doing nothing special”.
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But doing “nothing special” is sure different when you're hanging out with a six year old! Kids have a way of bringing life back into perspective. In their eyes, there’s no such thing as “Seven Wonders of the World” because everything around them is a miracle and life is composed of a million little wonders. And the magic of seeing the world through those innocent wondrous eyes is something we all need once in a while…
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