"Can I touch him?"
Children are so inspiring. Rebecca and I do not yet have children of our own, but we love kids, and find any excuse to invite children over to our house. Earlier in the week, our godson came over, and we laughed when he met Kemen, our hog-nosed snake. Kemen has a special defensive display in which he puffs up like a miniature cobra, hisses, and pretends to strike at your finger. But he never opens his mouth. Over and over our godson poked gently at Kemen, harassing the little snake so that he did his mock strike again and again. Probably not much fun for Kemen, but it amazed and delighted our godson.

                                                                                                                Bear loves snakes
Then our friend Bear came over with his two girls. We moved from fish tank ("Look at the snail! It’s moving!") to the snakes (which the girls encountered with a mixture of fear and fascination), and then (after one of the girls exclaimed that she wanted to ‘Stay here with the snakes’) we drove off to see the horses. We admired Bear’s fathering skills as we drove along. He pointed out every little sight along the side of the road, showing his girls the cows in the snowy field, the cat hiding behind a trailer’s wheel, and the miniature horse in a farmer’s pasture.

                          "His head is so BIG!"
When we arrived, the girls brushed Rajah and fed him treats, and then Bear and his girls all rode together on his back. “I’ve never been up this high, not even on the swingset at school!” one of the girls exclaimed.

I’m always amazed at kids’ sense of curiosity. Even when they’re scared, they usually can’t resist the urge to reach out and touch a snake’s scales or feed a treat to a horse whose head is as big as they are. I know that I often find myself longing for that sense of childhood curiosity – the sense that the world is deeply mysterious, and that wonders are hiding around every corner and under every rock. In this way, children can become teachers – sometimes it seems like they have a mystery-wisdom that is easy for us to forget when we grow up.                                                                                                                                        Three to a saddle

Maybe it's something we lose as we grow up, and there's nothing we can do about it.  But maybe, just maybe, we can remember some of the magic if we take the time to learn from the little ones.

 

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