Saturday, March 30, 2013

Working the dirt

March 29

No school today. My girls wake up slowly. "I'm board," announces my first grader. My stomach lurches. Ugh, I think, one day off and you are board. Do you really need structure all day every day. No, let's just ride this out a bit. I make a couple of suggestions and then let her be. After a time she starts making a fort in her room. Ah, I think, yes, a fort. They say boredom is good for kids. They say we are over scheduling our kids, taking away the chance for boredom. No time to think and putter.

Later we head outside and my little one decides to make dirt soup. Water, check, soap check, wooden spoon check. Dirt? She asks her sister to get her some dirt. I grab a bucket and we head down to the garden. My first grader grabs the hoe and starts turning the soil the way she's seen her grandfather do so many times. This is his therapy, his quiet thinking time. He heads out almost every day to hoe around his plants. "Have to break the crust so the moisture can soak in at night." Who knew? But I know his ritual is more than helping his garden flourish, it is his time to think and just be outside. I'm glad my daughter is mimicking him, even if she is not meditating on her day as he does. At lease she can enjoy the feeling of working the dirt.

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