Chestnuts

                 Last weekend my girly and I headed to fibre nirvana- also known as Knit City. A gathering of local fibre folk from around British Columbia. While my girl is interested in knitting and making things it cannot be denied that she was not interested in being indoors on such a glorious fall day- she knows sunshine is special and potentially fleeting at this time of year. So after we had a good look around we headed out to play under the massive Chestnut trees that tower overhead at the PNE grounds.

             We started by picking up just one perfect shiny chestnut a piece- but one quickly turned into many- which turned into an entire bag of nuts. Once you start it is difficult to stop. After a while I went and sat on a bench to soak in the sunshine and Miss Lo kept collecting and playing- quickly making up some elaborate bowling game- racing chestnuts down a hill- throwing them. Its so funny that even today- in a time of easy technology- children intuitively understand the universal appeal of a perfect chestnut.

        I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately- often I worry that I am selling our children short by raising them in the city- they don't have the freedom- imagined or not- that children in more rural areas enjoy. I try my best to sit back and let them have free play- but regardless I am there and they have yet to learn to truly play freely without adult eyes. I wonder do the advantages of living in the middle of a busy city outweigh the drawbacks?

       So for me to be able to withdraw from play completely and let my city kid run wild through an open space with chestnuts I am reassured that indeed they are perhaps just fine. Perhaps their childhood is not exactly as mine was but then few are these days. To watch my girl know just what to do with those chestnuts made me breath a sigh of relief- I know these kids of mine- they will be all right