Sunday, April 06, 2008

weeds


weeds
Originally uploaded by katzeye

Recently, my daughter Kiera came out for a visit. It’s always fun to have her because she is a person who is nearly larger than life. By that, I mean she is full of personality and energy, and she is colorful, and sweet, and well, she fills up a room (no, Kiera, I am not saying you are fat!).

She has been a force to be dealt with since birth. Actually, even at birth. Once she was ready to enter the world, she was coming in a hurry. (I am talking about the delivery stage, here, she was one of my quickest deliveries, arriving after about 13- hours of labor, but once the delivery stage began, she was in a huge hurry to get out and see the world!!! I was in an alternative birth center, and I remember the staff running around trying to prepare for her once they realized she wasn’t going to wait any longer.

Then, she surprised me at how she could be so content, and so motivated, and so loving, even as an infant. I could put her to bed at night, wide awake, and she didn’t cry! (after the three boys, this was a very strange, new experience!). In the mornings, she would wake up and begin to sing to herself until I came to get her. And everyone got love from her, from infancy on.

As a toddler, she liked to go into her room, and change her clothes a few times a day. She’d come out in some truly creative get-ups, often borrowing from my closet!

She would sing, dance, coo, all day long. She took ballet as a pudgy pre-schooler, and danced on stage. She liked to create stories and draw pictures all day long.

When she was four, she asked me to teach her to read. I got out some books with repetitive patterns, and in a little while, she was reading everything she could get her hands on.

She liked to take the dog and pretend she was her baby. She’d bathe her and wrap her in a towel and rock her. I am pretty sure the dog really believed that was her mother.

Anyway, this is about our visit. When she is here, I notice the ways that we are different. She likes to be very busy, and always fills up her time with many activities, and talks to a lot of people, and is very extroverted. I, on the other hand, like to be not busy, not fill up my time, and not talk so much, and I am more introverted.

But I also noticed the ways in which we are the same. As we took a walk on the beach, over the sand dunes, we were talking, but we both kind of stopped talking and I realized that we were both being distracted by the weeds.

Yes, weeds.

We both had our cameras and soon we were photographing the weeds.

Now, keep in mind, at first glance, these were just ordinary weeds. At first glance, they seemed to all be a kind of dull shade of brown. Most people would have just passed them by. But not us.

I was really enjoying that there was someone else in the world who would find beauty in the weeds, and to know that it was my own daughter.

What a precious gift to have in common the ability to see beauty in the world around us.

I love you, Kiera!

10 comments:

John said...

what a beautiful post. very eloquent. i can only imagine what it'll be like when mine are grown!

... said...

Thanks, John. Yeah, you can only imagine!

Anonymous said...

My first thought was oh no, not another weed appreciater! But its cool that there is another weed appreciater in the world!

Anonymous said...

such a beautiful tribute to your daughter. its a rare parent that can appreciate the differences as much as the similarities and allow their child to be differet!

kiera said...

aww thanks mom.it's funny to hear about yourself from another person, and a person that knows you so well...and just for the record i am only busy and extroverted while visiting since there are so many people to see...in my real life i lay as low as possible. i love our appreciation of mundane things, and i love you too!

... said...

Thanks, Patti.

Thanks, JW.

... said...

Thanks, Kiera, yeah, you're probably right about that-how busy you are when you are down here. In some ways, I guess that is like, for instance, when we went to Switzerland. We went somewhere everyday even though we were staying in such a beautiful setting with waterfall views in an alpine valley.

It's not the same as when you are living your daily life.

Anonymous said...

I always liked Kiera, too!

Anonymous said...

I always noticed your relationship with Kiera. You always were proud of her and so encouraging. And I could tell you had a lot of fun together. You guys are blessed!

... said...

Thanks, Julie! She's surely been a blessing in my life!