The Perseid meteor shower happens this week. I seem to come back again to a cyclical thought pattern around this time of the year. I am crap with my memory. I tend to forget large chunks of time, but luckily I am life long friends with Michelle who can tell me the color of shirt I was wearing on May 15 of 1992 if I questioned.
However, I always recall the meteor showers. It seems that no matter the state of my life during any particular late summer, the the Perseid meteor shower makes it all better. I am planning on waking up Finn this week so he can see it. I know this may or may not have a good outcome, but it is important I think. Because from what I read about next year, a last-quarter moon will be super bright and make it more difficult to see the Perseid's. I can't see him having to wait until he is 6 to see this amazing show.
Finn is announcing all sorts of facts to us lately:
A star is a large ball of gas (yes)
The Earth is our planet and it is the biggest in the universe.
(well, actually not )
I will go to space camp (oh really?)
Stars are so twinkly and tiny.(tiny?)
Sometimes he asks me questions that I have not the answers for. I don't know about Pluto apparently. I am thankful for the library. We talked lofty today at breakfast. We talked about Copernicus and the sun. It was all too much for him so we played Thomas the Tank Engine instead.
After a bit he asked how we know how big and far away these stars and planets are bc there are no maps and as hard as he tries he cannot reach up and touch one.
(Even on his red plastic chair in the backyard)
I agreed that this was tricky. I told him that there are smarty pant math people out there who make up math puzzles that tell us these things. As I was talking I realized that to Finn it all must come down to faith and believing in what I am telling him.
So, I gathered him up in my arms and explained that although there was no map that we could hold in our hands that charts the distance between or the size of our hearts...that we just knew it was a direct line and that they were massive when they beat for each other.
And even if we are very far away from each other-
although they might seem small and far away- our hearts- are really quite enormous and always within reach if you believe.
Kinda like the stars for a four year old...
6 comments:
Absolutlely lovely... :)
I love thinking like a small child. I'd much rather try to touch a star from my plastic chair than listen to a scientific description of it's size and distance. This may be why I wasn't a figurative star in Physics class.
That's beautiful.
I know a boy who'd be happy to regale him with info about Pluto. And stars. And moons. And nebulae. And galaxies. He visited the contentious planet this morning.
Space, time, distance... I'm amazed by what is and isn't comprehended and how many twists and turns it takes through imagination those things take daily.
The lama at the Buddhist temple said to me earlier this summer that our consciousness is as vast as the universe.
Hard to drag my ass out of bed-or stay up that late. But I do remember the last one!!
what a beautiful post. you are a good mother, I wish my mother talked to me that way (even now!)
<3
Thanks Amy... I forget those things... My mom always reminded me. Thanks bunches.
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