Children experience things for the first time every day. And often new experiences fill them with wonder and even more curiosity. They inhabit a world where new discoveries await around every corner. On my daughter’s second birthday, my children started wishing happy birthday to all the objects around them. “Happy birthday chair! Happy birthday rubber glove! Happy birthday remote control!” You could see their joy as they shouted these words of celebration. They were teaching me how to experience life in a way that I had forgotten.
At the beginning of the pandemic, they only had each other to play with and so they became even closer, developing their own language and games and rituals. They were each other’s interpreters if I didn’t understand what they were trying to communicate. They kept me grounded and focused during that time.
My children are also military children. The other day, we went to pick out plants for the garden and my son said, “I want to pick out a healing plant just in case Daddy gets shot again.” They live with the knowledge of John’s injury and trauma and I think about how that affects them. I try to protect them but they pull away. That is the dance of motherhood, pushing forward and pulling away, teaching and learning, holding on and letting go. I try to capture their bond and glimpses into their world when they let me in, before they change right before my eyes.
