A walk with Emolyn

Children have many superpowers, but I count their ability to WONDER and BE OPEN right at the very top of that list. It is these gifts that I was reminded of as my 8 year old daughter, Emolyn, and I went on a walk around the farm recently.

This walk took place during those few days when Spring and Summer embrace. In the South, sometimes it feels like they brush elbows for just a few seconds when suddenly cooler evenings are traded for a smothering hug of humidity & heat, but this year has been a bit different. We were really able to feel both seasons deeply and get to witness them playing side by side, hand in hand.

The flowers, both wild and planned for, were bursting everywhere. Emolyn and I were walking between our house and my parents house about 1/4 mile away. Em stopped and stooped to pick a quick bouquet and as she straightened back up and began to walk again she said, “Mom, I’m going to write a poem”. Without any worry about whether or not her words would make sense, or be good, or even be poetry she spoke:

In Honor of the Sun

 

In honor of the Sun

Of the light that it gives

I pick a bouquet.

 

And when the wind is calling to the sun

It has to rustle the yellow petals

Of the flowers that I picked before

It can return

To the sun again.

Her words left me wondering, feeling hopeful, amazed and open— what a gift she had just given me during a time when I’m trying so hard not to worry too much about all of the unknown ahead, a time when I can forget to be open to what’s around me right now. I wrote the poem in my phone so that I would always remember that moment, and she said it was ‘just fine’ if I shared it with you all here.

I hope this helps you take a moment to be thankful for the sun “for the light that it gives” and the flowers that exist because of it. This journey we’re all on will not last forever, and we will indeed return to the earth to be folded back into the beauty that surrounds us.