The waves are wide and lazy at the cottage this late morning

The tiger lilies closed up for the season

Appropriate since this is my last day here

Their raucous, bright orange cheer greeting me when we got here

Fewer and fewer flowers blooming each morning

Counting down the days

As is usually the case when the time for leaving the cottage is near

I am filled with both a sense of readiness as well as a hesitance

Not anxious to leave behind this beautiful place

But also ready for the real world to begin again

The things I need to do today

The video edits

The workshop prep

The backing up of photos

The packing

It is all pressing in

Making it hard to just sit here and be

Impatient

To get to the real work of the day

Real work

I think about how Shelly reminds everyone frequently

The real work of preschoolers is play

If you make them sit still, learning their letters all day

Doing worksheets instead of finger painting

Important connections are never made

What looks like a waste of time

Is actually the most important thing

These little developing minds

Role playing being a mommy or a daddy

Or a race car driver

As they learn to share and socialize

Their chubby, often sticky, fingers getting into everything

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (John 19:14)

Let the little children come

Not “make them come”

But “let them come”

Because they already want to come

They do not resist the coming

As I often do

So many other “more important” things getting in the way

I think about little children

Children need

They cannot survive without help

Help even with the smallest of tasks

Like washing their hands

Or tying their shoes

They do not wait for the job loss or the diagnosis

To suddenly express their need

They are living balls of insistent need

Constantly needing something

Children feel

They are emotionally vulnerable

Quick to laugh and quick to cry

And when they smile, their whole bodies smile

From their eyes to their toes

They do not politely hold back a guffaw

Or worry what others think

They dance in their joy

Their emotions close to the surface

Which seems like a negative

Until you realize

In expressing the emotion, they are also free of it

It disappears as fast as a sunset

A mother duck and her baby duckling float by

The back duck turns himself around

Goes away from his mama

A few inches

But then seems to remember

And scurries back to her

His little legs furiously paddling the water

Following her

Children follow

Imperfectly

As I can attest

Having seen many a preschool line

Disintegrate into an amoeba

The poor teacher trying to get them back in shape

Someone always asking to be line leader

But still content to follow the teacher

Children trust

They know their teacher

Has fun things in store for them

Better things than they can come up with on their own

So they follow

With expectation

Children live

They stay in the moment

They do not have an agenda

Not a lengthy one anyway

They are perfectly content to stop what they are doing

To notice a flower in full bloom

An ant on the sidewalk

The way the sunshine creates shadows

Viewing the world through a lens of wonder

Oh, to be like a little child

Before my heavenly father

One who acknowledges my need for help

Who feels and lets go

Follows and trusts in the One I am following

Who comes unbidden and without permission

Because I know I am always welcome

To sit on my Abba’s lap

One who lives with holy expectation

Stopping what I am doing

To experience the joy