I took a walk with my toddler this morning, which included a stop at a playground where we saw a baby in his stroller. We didn't have a chance to really meet the baby--just waved across the mulch on our way back from the slide--but as we left my daughter waved goodbye and called out "Bye bye baby! We love you!"
My daughter is telling everyone she loves them these days: babies we hardly know, fish at the pond we visited, our new porch furniture. As we left the playground, I almost started a conversation with her about who we say I love you to, and the possibility that the baby-whose-name-we-don't-know might not qualify.
And then I thought...wait a second! I'm going to teach my daughter about how to appropriately circumscribe love? How to keep love within conventional boundaries, how to maintain our usual social structures so that love doesn't grow too wildly in the world?
What if we all had that toddler impulse--what if we all loved a little too wildly? Today, I'm thinking about how I can love as broadly as possible. Not just how I can show respect, or behave with tolerance, but how I can love.
And so on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day: I love you, world.
2 comments:
That warms my heart. Thanks for sharing this story.
What a love-ly way to start a blog!
Post a Comment