Zoe,what do you see?

Zoe is at a fun stage now where her babbelings are becoming words. I can tell that she is as excited about this new ability to be understood and communicate as I am. Were I to ask, where is your_________ (baby, bottle, soother, shoes, hat, jacket, wakey bear, bath, bubble dog, etc.) she runs to the item, or searches for it, and proudly brings it over to me (or alternately repeats what she wants over and over again "bath" "bath')
She points out things she sees outside, or inside, and when we go for walks I find I often ask her, "What do you see?"

Which has been helping me ask myself the same question. It has been so humbling to learn that I am not looking at life as fresh and hopeful and beautiful as I used to- that my mind is preoccupied much of the time, rather than being saturated in the present moment. But Zoe; she is delighted by every morning and every hand gesture, and every post-bath nudie-on-the-loose run around the house. She loves walking up townsite hill and picking up pine cones and rocks.

It has been very rainy here, much like the coast, and Zoe and I were out on a walk and puddle jump, when I started to ask her again, "what do you see?". It was almost like a re-training session for me, to see the different colours of rocks in the pavement, the green grass growing through cracks in the walkways,

the round balls of white flowers on the bush in front of our house that we didn't know about last year (we moved in August)

the contrast of grey road and bright bright little happy girl

And it wasn't quite silence, but it was pretty soothing for my heart. 

And the best things about it is, when I too am delighted by the things that delight Zoe, that catch her eye, we share our joy and deepen our relationship with each other. I don't want to be too full of my "to-do's" to notice these things- and wonder sometimes what it is about them. Zoe helps me remember that we do indeed live in a wonderland, doused with God's creativity and beauty.