I see needles and blue sky
He sees his grandmother
I feel warm rays on my skin
He feels the comfort in her hug
I smell Christmas
He smells her distinct perfume
I hear the wind
He hears a familiar loving voice
I touch the air
He touches her hand one last time
We both lie beneath the pine
This poem was inspired by my interaction with a six-year-old boy while leading a kindergarten snowshoe hike. I had just turned the group around and saw one of the boys lying on his back under a pine tree. As I walked towards him, I prepared myself to motivate him to continue hiking. For some reason, I decided to bend down and ask him what he was looking at. His reply took me by surprise, “I feel her niceness….I can feel her love. It’s right there.” Fighting back tears, I replied, “That’s a special feeling.”
As teachers we often feel the urgency to move on with the lesson. If I had told this child, “Get up, we’re heading back down the mountain” I would have never known that he was having a really special experience. I regret not allowing all the children to have the same opportunity. This is also a reminder, to never assume that we know why a child is behaving a particular way. Upon seeing this boy lying down I thought he was tired. Maybe he was, but this led him to look up and feel the niceness of a loved one. These are the types of experiences that we need to give children the opportunity to have. Each child will experience lying beneath a tree differently, but at least it is their own experience. I am grateful I took a moment to try to see the tree through this child’s eyes.
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