Our kids have radar for beautiful little things. They want to keep every flower, seedpod, unusual leaf or particularly special twig they find. We keep a number of handy phrases in our pocket to deter them from disturbing a picturesque flower or filling the foot-well of the car with half a gumtree but really, I totally understand where they are coming from!
I wish I could keep all the beautiful dark plum coloured roses that grew in a far corner of my childhood home or collect all the shells on the beach and string them into garlands that will forever remind me of the holiday when Miss M at age 3 walked all the way down the beach to the walruses (the sandbags) for the first time and was so impressed with her own fortitude that almost 3 years on she still talks about it.
At home, Miss M has boxes for her collections sorted according to how special they are to her with the jewellery box Grandma and Grandpa gave her at the peak of the hierarchy.
Master E has a treasure box under his bed but at any given time has at least three “treasures” in his pocket.
I wonder are my little ones really collecting beautiful things or beautiful memories…maybe both.
If there is a way to preserve all the keys to my precious memories in a single piece of jewellery I want to find it. I want to create a touchstone. Something that I can hold that will draw out all these reminiscences while I sit in my favourite chair with a cup of tea at the end of the day when all the beautiful noise and chaos of small child parent life has paused for sleep.
Bea