Sunday 4 May 2014

What would a child do?


I was privileged to work with children for decades. They taught me so much about the limitations of being a grown-up.

This hit me last weekend. Each year our local charities raise money by charging people to visit West Woods - known for their carpets of bluebells. Sunday was sunny - and the woods were full of visitors. But there is plenty of room for everyone, for these bluebells stretch for miles, or so it seems.

For once, I'll give you pictures:


Who wouldn't want to wander here?


Or here?


Just imagine you're six, and seeing this for the first time! That blue that shimmers, sparkles in the sunlight. That smell - though if you breathe too deeply it will make you cough. I was well-behaved enough, at six, to know I shouldn't pick them (though I wanted to) - but even now how I longed to run through them. Or even lie down, to make a bed in them, to have bluebells tickle my nose and whisper spring secrets in my ears.

I didn't, of course. I even took sensible routes to avoid the mud. But sometimes I wish we could shake off our adult expectations. Wouldn't it be wonderful to abandon grown-upness and rediscover bluebells for the first time?

11 comments:

  1. I wish that too. I climbed onto Grand kids' trampoline yesterday and had a little bounce. Is that daft enough?

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    1. It's daft enough to start with, Ros. Tomorrow you'll be buried in sand, maybe?

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  2. A truly lovely verbal image accompanied by lovely visual ones too. To shake off adulthood and just experience the sheer wonder of childhood again…sigh!

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    1. We can always pretend, Val - we're writers, after all!

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  3. Yes!! I grw up near woods, and (this was the 1950s) used to lose myself in them for hours. We have a bluebell wood near us (scheduled to go under the developers boot) It is such a joy. And the scent! Lovely post!

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    1. Bluebells - just wish they were legitimate defence against the bulldozers (our woodland is ancient and protected, how lucky are we?)

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  4. It's just lovely Jo. I love seeing things through the toddler's eyes and love them to jump in muddy puddles and do as much daft stuff as they want. When my children were young we didn't have those ball pools and when they came out I had no youngsters but I started working in a school for children with special needs and we went to a play place and I got to sit in a ball pool surrounded by coloured balls I felt like five again.

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    1. Isn't that just one of the very best things about being with children?

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  5. I still have the urge to roll whenever I see a grassy slope!

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    1. You need to borrow some children, Laura - they are an excuse to do wonderful things!

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  6. Being in a bluebell wood at about the age of 3 was one of my first memories, and I can still recapture something of that feeling when I see them now. So glad I got out into Surrey and saw lots of bluebells!

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