…God bless turkeys, God bless sheeps….
This morning I met up with my sister-in-law and another mom in her homeschooling group to go strawberry picking with all the kids. As it turned out the farm in our town closes the strawberry patches on Monday and Tuesday to let them recover from the weekend so we didn’t actually pick strawberries. The kids ran around in the field, playing games and picking up sticks and leaves and dandelions and clover and then we looked at the animals: emus and sheep, chickens, turkeys and peacocks. We bought strawberries at the farm store because I couldn’t go home without them, Isabella had been told we were getting strawberries and would have been heartbroken (and screamed all the way home).
So tonight during bedtime prayers she began her usual litany, remembering all the highlights of the day. I’ve been working on channeling them into prayers so she usually adds, “God bless,” to the beginning of each item on the list: God bless cousins (whom she lists by name), God bless chickens, turkeys, sheeps, bench, raisins, cup, water, flowers, strawbries, and then on into the further past, remembering seagulls and swans at the park a few weeks ago, the playground, the swimming pool, and back to her cousins again…. She’d go on all night if we let her.
How precious these little lists are! How she hoards her memories and pulls them out throughout the day like gleaming treasures to be admired. Waiting as she recites each item for me to repeat it back to her. Or, if I’m too slow on the uptake, repeating it herself again and again until I acknowledge her memory as a true one. Truly God has blessed my little girl, giving her such a beautiful world to revel in.
