Mud pie delights

Yesterday afternoon after my daughter and her cousin had finished their ballet recital rehearsal, we came back to the house and because they had been inside the dark hall, they jumped out of the car and ran with abandonment through the yard, arms flailing, shouting for joy, as they inhaled the beautiful fresh air. They headed for the rope swing that my husband had made. The sound of their laughter was infectious and filled the air with such merriment and youth.
I stood at the kitchen window watching them and thinking about how easy it was to be their age. How delightful it was to just run outside and play. I was thrilled they were outside enjoying the air. I watched them chatting like two little ladies and saw flashes of what they will be like when they get older.
I called them in for a snack then my husband came home so we made him a gourmet salad with the girls’ advice about how it should be presented. Then the light bulb went off for them about what to do next.
They disappeared into the yard chatting about their next plan. They then wondered into the house to get water containers but didn’t say why. Then they came in with culinary masterpieces they had created from mud, flowers, leaves, twigs and whatever else they could find in the yard. By that time my cousin and her friend had arrived so we oohed and aahed over the “food” they had prepared.
They presented their creations as appetizers, main courses and desserts. Their presentation was amazing. We all laughed and said, “When we were their age, we didn’t even know what an appetizer was and neither did we know anything about presentation. When we made food out of mud it looked like food out of mud. It didn’t have the gourmet look nor did it have such terms as seaweed salad, clams, or mocha, to name a few.”
I said, “It’s because we had never been to a restaurant when we were their age so we would not have known what an appetizer was nor did we have the diversity of people that we have now living in Bermuda so we would never have heard of seaweed salad!”
It made me reflect on how much more our children have been exposed to than we ever were but at the end of the day they still want to play in the mud, they still want to create and they still want to be acknowledged for what they do. It was truly a wonderful late afternoon treat to see my daughter and her cousin sitting at her little outdoor table creating food masterpieces from nature, getting their hands dirty and just being little girls using their imagination rather than sitting inside having their imaginations suppressed by the television or computer.