The experience of being a Dad certainly has had a profound effect on me. In my nature walks I always show pictures of Amy and Alyssa walking in nature, and tell stories of how my daughters would see things that I missed, being an adult. I say that kids are like that, how they remind grownups of things that they had forgotten.
I recently began showing my participants two contrasting pictures to emphasis my point. One is of a brick wall with two tiny red dots in the center. That is how many adults see bugs. The second is a close up of the two dots, which the pictures show to be two spotted ladybugs. That is how kids see bugs. I explain that my kids pointed out things that I did not see anymore, and helped me to be more interested in the world, in seeing it through their eyes.
That is so true. When I became an adult going to the zoo was old stuff. But that was before I followed two year old Alyssa on a trip to the zoo. She was so delirously happy and curious that she ran from exhibit to exhibit. It took quite an effort to just stay up with her. The natural joy of life and curiousity my young daughters brought to this world, and to me, is part of the gift of a youthful life and childlike outlook on the world. Some people are able to retain it through adulthood.
One of my favorite pictures is of Amy and my dog Bud standing on the edge of a snowy hill, looking off into a landscape of newfallen snow. I remember that day. We got up on a Sunday morning after an overnight spring snowstorm. We were the first ones out, except for the foxes and mice.
Experiences like that, walking with my kids in nature, has had an effect on me that seems to have be life changing, and I think will be lifelong. I tell the young faces on my nature walks all about Amy and Alyssa and what they are like, and how they would walk with me, and the things we would do. I tell them that Amy and Alyssa are getting a little older now, but that 'I think you kids probably like a lot of the things Amy and Alyssa did when they were your age.
We talk about bugs and seasons and foxes and deer and skunks and the miracle of plant growth. They reach down and feel the fuzzy hairs on the mullen leaves, and think how the hairs keep them moisture in and insects out. They listen how I demonstrate about bats flying and mantis trying to evade them. I ask them to have a quiet moment and just hear the wind in the trees and the far off birds and the silence.
It is possible to be a grandfather at my age. Actually that is how I feel when I am instructing these young children and their teachers and parents. My kids are growing into the teen years and adulthood. But the happiness I had with them during their younger years had caused me to want to share it with other children that age.
