Soaking it up

After days of slow-down and inside, we snuck outside to soak it up...the sun...the fall...the day.

The being-together. 

It was a day of sandwiches on the blanket, reading some books - her turn, my turn...

 Of noticing the world within the leaves was alive with activity and adventure! 

Suddenly we noticed that there were strands of silk strung throughout the leaves, which could only mean one thing...

 Spiderlings.

It was a day of feeling deeply grateful that these are the days we have.  Grateful that we are choosing to spend them together, grateful that we are able to do that.  It might just be autumn sneaking into my soul, but there are times when it hits me how quickly time is flying.  Children have a way of making you notice that...Eliza and I lay on our bellies looking at the babies rappel and fly through the air on their little strands.  It made me think of Charlotte's Web, of course, and how sad I feel every time I read it, when after the sadness of Charlotte's death and Wilbur's wait for the hatching of the eggs, the spiderlings start taking off en masse into the wind and you feel how helpless and sad Wilbur is to watch them go...

Our attention was turned to the playgroup of toddlers that had been romping around in a nearby part of the park; they were asking if they might borrow our rakes for a bit to make their own leaf piles? As we watched (and then joined in) the making of great piles of leaves, and the ensuing jumping, hiding, rolling and giggling that went on, Eliza turned to me and said, "I think we just made their day a whole lot better!"  I don't know that we could ask for more than that.