Through My Son's Eyes

I had heard people say what a joy it is to see the world through the eyes of your child. To be honest, I always figured that it was more of an expression, but I didn't know that it really meant that you would see things that you never even noticed before.

Will's latest word is clock (only it doesn't quite sound like clock, but that's a whole other post). He sees clocks everywhere. Sometimes, it takes me quite awhile to find the clock, but I always do. His eyes never miss one!

He does the same thing with bird. Once, we were at a craft fair and I was looking at some lovely jewelry and homemade soaps. "Bird! Bird!" he kept insisting.

I looked around, but couldn't see a bird (and we were indoors), so I said, "Will, I don't see a bird."

The owner of the booth we were at started laughing and pointed at a booth six over and partially hidden by a rack of homemade diaper bags where there was a small painting of a bird. I had to squint to see it from where we standing, but he never wavered in his certainty. Like I said, he never misses a thing.

He certainly does make me see the world differently. I literally stop and smell the roses now. I stop and pick up a red leaf that is different from the green ones that he had just gotten over his fascination of (and now they are red, so it's a whole new level of interest). I stop to explain rain drops, airplanes, cars with loud mufflers, the list goes on and on.

So many of these are things he is seeing (or at least trying to understand) for the first time. I love being the one to teach and explain the world to him. I love being the one to see the dawning of comprehension on his face. I love being the one that gets the joy and privilege of exploring things with him and watching the every day become new and different.

I know there will be times when stopping to look at a frog or explaining what thunder is will be trying. There are a million things to do, a zillion places to go, but I really hope that I will stop and take even a few seconds to continue to see the world through Will's eyes each and every day.

I have a feeling the world would be a far better place if we all did so.