by Lum Michael Patterson

Created on: February 17, 2010   Last Updated: February 18, 2010

                                                                                THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD

It was a beautiful Spring day, the wildflowers were blooming and Kaya, Darby (my granddaughters, ages 4 and 2) and I were walking through the woods in search of the wonders of nature.  Kaya saw it first, a big brown egg lying just off the path.  Using our deductive skills (the woods were full of Guineas, the egg was too big for other birds) we concluded we had happened upon a Guinea egg.  Kaya became concerned because the mother hen wasn’t sitting on the egg.  I persuaded her to leave the egg where it was so the mother hen could find it.  As we walked she was constantly on watch for the mother hen to come in search of her baby.  It wasn’t long before Darby grew tired of walking so I suggested we head for home.   “What about the egg?”, Kaya asked.  I told her we would check on the egg on our  way back.  When we got back to the egg there was no mother Quinea in sight.  I tried to assure her it would be okay but she would not leave the egg 'alone'.  After several minutes of debate I agreed to let her take the egg. 

When we exited the woods my son Jeremy was in the yard.  Kaya ran over to him, showed him the egg, and explained her concern.  She was unwilling to accept the fact that the mother hen wasn’t looking for her baby and wanted to go back to find the mother hen. Realizing that would never happen I suggested she put the egg where another bird might find it and sit on it.  Kaya looked at me like I had lost my last marble and exclaimed “That’s absurd!”.  Jeremy and I began laughing and Kaya took off running.  I went after her.

She was sitting under a tree and as I approached she said  “Papa you and Daddy hurt my feelings”.  Hurt was an adequate word to describe her expression.  I explained that we weren’t laughing at her for what she said, we were laughing because of the way she said it. “Well it’s true Papa.  If another bird sat on the egg and a Guinea popped out she would think her baby was a doofus.”

I went from the verge of laughter to the verge of tears as it hit me like a hammer.  I had mistaken Kaya’s compassion for stubbornness. She had reuniting that baby chick with it’s mother as her primary goal and was certain the mother was searching for her baby.  In fact, to her there was no way on God’s green earth that mother hen was not frantically searching for her egg.  “Mother’s don’t leave their babies”, she said.  To me it was just an egg, to Kaya it was a baby chick.   What a world this would be if everyone saw it through the eyes of a child.

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