squirrel song

today my love and I woke up early and spent our morning together, cleaning the house, endlessly throwing a ball for the sweet, sweet pup we're temporarily housing (while the lazy hound dog slept).  mornings together are not something we have gotten in a good while.  it was nice to start my day being productive with my Maxwell (and it did wonders on the energy of the house).

other things that filled my day with joy: Caroline's hugs.  what a sweet girl.  she makes a point, every day, multiple times throughout the day, to give me a hug.  so I made a point today to let her know how much I appreciated that.  she has a golden heart, which last year often lead her to getting overly emotional about everyday things.  this year she seems to have matured, and I have yet to see her get upset over something silly.  it's good to see her growth, good to see her confident and happy.

I made a mistake today.  a careless mistake.  last year one of our counselors taught the kids two songs that go hand-in-hand: brown squirrel and dead squirrel.  the kids go wild over these songs.  today, I asked what song we should sing, and a couple kids gave those two songs as the response, so we sang them.  it was loads of fun, we shook our bushy tails and struck a dead pose.  not two minutes after we finished, as the groups were gathering their things to be on their merry way, Sakshi approached me with concern to let me know that Lylaani was crying.  I immediately sat beside Lylaani and asked her what was wrong.

her leaky eyes locked with mine and she spilled "my grandma just died".  doh.  I wanted to smack myself over the head.  instead I hugged her and tried my best to let her know I understood, to let her know that death, although scary, doesn't have to be a bad thing.  that it was ok to cry, to be sad.  that she could keep her in her heart, always.  it pains me to see little ones experience death, just as it does to see anyone lose a friend.  but death is a fact of life, and I hope that we can all learn to see it as something different, but not bad.

because different is beautiful.  different is a new adventure, an electric idea.

different are children like Sakshi, who care for others, seek out help when they don't know what to do.  it's not the first time she's shown this much compassion for the well-being of another student.  I didn't get a chance today to let her know what brilliant virtue that is, but it won't be forgotten.