I feel like I have been everywhere this summer! I'm exhausted, and I do apologize because it is you who follow me that suffer from lack of posts. :(
So as I had stated in a previous post, we had moved up to beautiful Washington, and on the way up we stopped at the Grand Canyon. Which brings me to todays post topic on how to remember and keep that childhood magic and wonder at the world alive.
DO SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOU FEEL SMALL.
Yes I'm yelling it, because we often don't do this enough. For some of us feeling small makes us feel weak, but that is not what I am aiming for at all.
Now as you can see here, and have heard, the Grand Canyon is huge. Pictures really do not even do it justice and you really can't even put into words how massive the canyon truly is.
Another display of the huge rocks that are in the canyon here.
And if the previous two pictures were not enough, Look how small our family is compared to the Super-Sized Grand Canyon.
Now I will not continue to beat a dead horse; hypothetically of course, I would never beat a horse alive or dead...but I digress; by telling you exactly how huge the Grand Canyon is, but to stand beside it is simply breathtaking and it reminds us of how small we truly are. If you take in the vastness of the canyon, and then contemplate how small the canyon is compared to the ocean, and then compared to the Earth in it's entirety, you just become awestruck.
Now the Grand Canyon trip was actually almost a run by as we had gotten lost and had gone about two hours in the wrong direction and then had to double back to take it in. But it was definitely worth the six hours behind schedule we had gotten.
A bit less of a rush was our recent trip to Mt. Rainier. This gorgeous always snow covered beauty is upwards of 10,000 feet. Talk about a Super-Sized mountain.
We hiked for quite a while at Paradise Valley which is one of the spots most visited by tourists. It's no wonder why it's the most visited as the flowers were blooming and there was still snow on the ground. Plus being able to walk comfortably with Summer clothes. Well worth it. While on one of our two hikes my daughters spotted a tree with a hole at the bottom and demanded pictures. Well of course I'll oblige pictures of you poking your head out of the tree looking like a little sprite, or elf. (and for those of you who are concerned, we did check the tree before allowing her to climb in...no snakes, skunks, spiders, etc.)
Then there were these wonderful little flowers called Western Pasqueflower, which I didn't know until we returned from our hike, and looked them up. We had a blast though referring to them as Trufulla Trees. They really did look like miniature little Trufulla Trees from Dr. Suess' The Lorax.
We hiked quite close to the snow covered portion of Mt. Rainier but still it loomed so far away, and so massive. This is again another reminder of how small we truly are when compared to the Earth as a whole. Sometimes we need to be reminded of the fact that we are small. It tends to humbles us as well as make us think twice before stepping on something smaller than we such as an ant just because it is in our way. We all have our own individual purpose here, whether we be an ant, a Moose, a Tiger, or a Human and we have to learn to live with one another. By being reminded of being small we know how our children feel, and can better understand the way they think, and what they feel, for they often feel quite small, and as a parent, sometimes it can be quite easy to remind children of how they are not old enough to do something, or are to small to help.
But being small can make us happy. Think of when you were a child, you were small enough to fit in spaces adults couldn't, and always had the best hiding places. As a child you're hand was small enough to fit in the Pickle Jar resulting in whichever Pickle was the fattest instead of settling for the one on top. There are so many wonderful things that come from being small so take the time to remember to be small, and visit someplace Super Sized.
