An Art Date With My Boy

Hot, black coffee in the crisp air under a full moon--not a bad way to start the day. Yesterday after I dropped off Phoenix at preschool, Fisher and I returned home to enjoy 2 hours just the 2 of us. He showed me the pile of grass and leaves he likes to stomp in while making his bigfoot noises. He showed me where he hung his latest birdhouse. Then we grabbed his metal detector and took off for the trail to look for treasure and gather berries for his nests. We found deer, raccoon, rabbit, and what looked like cougar tracks in the soft bank of the creek. We walked to the lone buckeye tree that we check on weekly to see if they were ready (they were). When we cracked one open it revealed such lovely swirls and lines--like a rock born of the knot of a tree--and I told him that nature provides some of the most beautiful art, that one could find art in everything. We found an abandoned bird nest on the ground and he remarked that it was the art of birds, and then he told me how birds spit on the dirt and then collect it in their beaks to form their nests. We took the nest, collected berries, and returned home, where we came across a baby snake in the driveway, both of us screaming and jumping outright and then laughing at our reaction. He put the nest right outside his bedroom window and lined his sill with berries as some sort of runway so he could watch it from within his room. Then we cuddled on the sofa in the quiet and looked out the window watching hummingbirds drink from the feeder, watching a slice of the world occur. He said "even the leaves on those trees make art because they make the air we breathe" and I said "yes, the art of living." At one point we ended up looking at google images of snakes on the iPad. For some reason we started looking at pictures of people from around the world eating bugs and grubs, which blew his mind, and I reminded him that what might seem strange to him isn't so strange for everyone, to which he replied "it's an art of different places." Later, when the rain came he asked to go outside and play in it so he could feel the art of rain.