Kids

Watching my son's sweetie's kids lately. What I had almost forgotten about kids:

• the amount of energy they can pack into teeny bodies. Jumping up to throw basketballs, racing around chasing other kids, climbing up giant slides, bouncing on furniture. And the physical and mental energy I need to keep up with them!
• the way they notice everything -- the different colors and shapes of ducks, the multitudinous activities of ground squirrels (the biggest attraction for kids of all ages the other day was a dead squirrel), the mini-world of bugs. I have been recapturing some of this "noticing" when I go for camera walks, but they're so much better at it!
• their non-stop imaginations. A running dialog speaking from the ducks' points of view, imaginary weapons and aliens, "the floor is lava, we can't touch it." Shoots me right back to my own grade school summers of cloud-shadow fairies and living in the worlds of children's literature.
• the speed with which they can duck out of sight, behind a rock, a bush, another kid. That instant parental panic until they're spotted again. I'd relaxed since my boys got big and lived independently. It all comes back in the blink of an eye. No blinking allowed!
• the seemingly limitless capacity for mastering the details of games. For me, any game (any thing!) that has a set of instructions more than a page long seems hopelessly complex, but for them, particularly with some experience under their belts, it all makes perfect sense and they can nudge me along.