One of my favorite places to walk with my son… the Botanical Garden at UC Berkeley. He leads. I follow.
Interested in what we saw on this visit to the gardens? Check out these posts…
Silent Saturday: UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley
Slowing down, being present, and noticing the beauty around us.
hike.wander.wonder 
being silent with God’s creation all around you is an awesome thing isn’t it?
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The beauty of nature is truly an awesome thing.
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Great photos. The carefree child in photo two and the pensive child in the last photo. You capture the spirit of what you see so well.
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Thank you, Alex. The first half of our visit, he was running around carefree and bubbling with happiness, until, unfortunately, we came across a dead bird (towhee) in the middle of a trail. He was very upset and cried, and, in response, became more reserved for the rest of the visit. He talked about the bird for days. 😦
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Whoops! That child has a strong close connection to nature.
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In hindsight “whoops” is not a good word to describe what I mean, rather it is to say it is unfortunate that your son came across the death and was so upset. Though it is a learning curve about nature that it is a birth-life-death cycle.
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Actually, “whoops” was accurate. My son has been hyper aware and concerned about death for quite a while now. Sometimes he cries, wishing he could stay 5-years-old forever and never have to grow up and die. I can’t hide death from him, but I have been trying to limit his exposure until we get through this period.
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I am relieved, I metaphorically kicked myself as soon as I hit “enter” sending that “whoops” post out, as it sounded rather cold hearted in the circumstances.
Nature is a good teacher, it introduces to children the hard reality of life. Better he dealt with the death of a bird than say a school friend.
As a child I had the same fear as he did of death, and growing up. One strategy I adopted was to stop eating marmite which at the time had some advertising tag of helping children grow up. The strategy obviously failed.
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You made me laugh out loud! Thank you. 🙂
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