Life From A Child's View

What the children say - it can leave an adult stunned and wordless, rolling in laughter, amazed by the thought process, the imagination, the power of the unfettered mind.  Remember the Art Linkletter show?  How I looked forward to each episode and the the things that came from children!!

Somewhere in a book now packed safely in a box are notes I made when my children were small. Treasures that I recall with no such prompting aides.

One summer, I planned on going home to Montana to see my parents and as the date of departure drew nearer, discussions of the impending trip increased. I made the flight arrangements and began sorting through clothes to pack. My husband and I talked about what time we would have to be at the airport in order to catch the plane going out and the arrangements for catching the plane in Seattle for the return trip.

The day we were scheduled to leave, I was packing suitcases, making last minute calls and trying to get things done around the house. It was a bright sunny afternoon, the back door was open and my three year old daughter was in and out.

Our log cabin was in a suburb that was under the IFR path for aircraft flying into the local airport. It was not unusual for the jets to come in low over the cabin on approach and I had become accustomed to the sound. My daughter dashed in from outside following one low pass. "Mom," she said as she came in, "how do you catch a plane?"

I stopped folding clothes and looked down at her. I could see the wheels turning as she pondered this thought and I tried to imagine what images she was seeing. Several crossed my mind. I could see her visualizing us running across the yard with a net on the end of a stick, lifting it in an attempt to snag the aircraft out of the sky. Or maybe we approached it in the same manner as one of our cats approached a bird in the grass. I smiled as I recalled a statement from childhood where we were told that we could catch a bird if we could sprinkle salt on his tail.

"Well, I guess we'll have to see if we can sprinkle some salt on his tail." I exclaimed. I could tell right away that that was not one of the images that she pondered. I reached out to touch the top of her blond head and knelt to face her. "Daddy is taking us out to the airport where the airplanes park." I explained. "We don't really catch a plane, it is a term we use to explain getting on the plane before it leaves again."

She didn't look as if she really understood all of that, but she didn't question any further. She turned and ran back outside leaving me to contemplate a child's images.

My son must have been around eight the day he came in with the question that made me smile. He had been playing outside and a light breeze was blowing. He came into the kitchen where I was fixing dinner.

"Mom?" He had my attention so went on. "We feel the wind when it goes by, right?"

"Yes" I agreed.

"So how come we don't feel time when it goes by?"

I didn't quite know how to answer the question so I thought about it for a moment. Then I smiled. "It's hard to explain all of that." I said. "Time at this moment goes by very slowly and you are right, we don't feel it in the same way we do the wind. But come talk to me about that question again in about 15 years and I think you will be asking me where the time went by so quickly. When you are little, you don't feel the time go by, but sometimes when you are bigger you can really feel it go by!"

There is always that urge to say the first thing that comes to mind when children say the darndest things.  I recall so many such and these times - though these thoughts tumbled, there must - as a parent - be the logical side that responds with the proper explanation of life.  It is these little things they say - nuggets if you will - that we tuck away and make us realize what a learning process it is to have children!!