Dinosaurs In The Garden Of Eden: Teaching Your Child Respect For The Environment
I come in from pulling weeds and hear my husband and daughter rustling around in the bottom of her toy box, voices muffled by stuffies and building blocks.
“Find an animal we can leave in the magic forest,” my husband says.
My daughter proudly procures an ugly plastic brown Apatosaurus, approximately the size of my gall bladder.
“Daddy, look at my animal! A die sore!”
I see his plan. Almost every weekend we go walking in North Vancouver and there’s a little spot off one of the beaten trails where something magical has occurred. It started, from my recollection, with a few stones the shape and size of eagle eggs being lovingly cradled in a decaying trunk. Then someone nestled a wrought iron bird beside it and nailed a horseshoe to the tree. Over the months, small painted wooden creatures and ceramic gnomes started to appear in the nooks and crannies around it, slightly hidden. It was something organic and delightful that grew out of one person’s vision, igniting a community’s quiet collective imagination. But like my daughter’s dinosaur, tackier plastic offending articles started to show themselves: waving from knots like a Disney float, leaching toxins while squatting on the moss, rubbing their “made in Malaysia” keesters on newborn ferns.
I’m horrified at the thought of polluting the environment with our plastic Jurassic offering. What is my husband thinking?
Oh, then of course the mental list tumbles…this is the man who leaves the tap running while he brushes his teeth, the man who doesn’t shred and recycle his office papers, the man who pours paint thinner in my herb garden! Of course he doesn’t even think about leaving a non-biodegradable cancer causing Chinese slave labor product in a protected land area!
The whole situation reminds me of the Illuminares Lantern Procession in Vancouver. Hand crafted candle lit paper lanterns started to be upstaged with fair concessions, battery charged flagships, smashed beer bottles under the feet of toddler fairies and glow sticks on potheads clogging up the footpath with their “wow man” wonder. Though it was still fun, it started to gain a seedy carnival underbelly. Humans. We sully everything.
My daughter runs up and hugs my legs, waving her wrinkled phallic Darwinian prize in my face. “Mommy, mommy, wanna come put die sore in the woods?” Such joy in her eyes. Such guileless “I am a good Daddy” hope in my husband’s dear face. I decide not to get pissy. “What’s one little dinosaur in a world full of land fills?” I suck up my self righteousness and feign delight.
We drive up to the trails and indeed, tip toe through the magic forest. My daughter is breathless with delight as my husband lifts her up to see the white goose, the strawberry fairy, the sleepy elf, the raku mask hearkening back to the eighties…
Then, after much pondering, she carefully places ol’ long neck underneath a raised tree root. For a dun Willy who looks like he’s smoked three packs a day for his entire life…given the gorgeous lighting and the proper back drop, he actually looks…beautiful. A real Royal Tyrrell Museum masterpiece.
I think of snatching him back when my girl isn’t looking, but then I figure, “He’s not going anywhere. That wrinkled winker is going to last until the next Ice Age. I’ll retrieve him when the forest is no longer magic for my baby.”
As we walk along I deal with my guilt by reminding myself of all the good things I’ve taught my daughter. We clean up other people’s litter every time we go to the park. We recycle Avalon milk bottles. We turn off the lights. I have explained what the “blue box” is for. We only use a little bit of water on our toothbrush and not too much soap in the laundry…eventually this must sink in…this respect for the planet.
My daughter patters along the forest path, still bending down to look for magic under logs, peering through the treacherous blackberry bushes, gazing all the way up the tall majestic Douglas firs…
“I think the magic part is done, honey.”
She stops suddenly in front her, squats down in front of a fallen tree and gasps with wonder, “Mommy, Daddy, look!”
We do.
“There’s nothing there, love.”
She shakes her head and points and giggles with joy. “Magic!”
I look again. There’s a branch leaning artfully against tangled roots, a sprig of green growth, a ring of lime green moss…it really is…beautiful.
My husband leans down.
“Did somebody put something there?”
I see from my daughter’s face, indeed Someone did.
. . . . . . .
Photo courtesy of ((brian))
The copyright of the article Dinosaurs In The Garden Of Eden: Teaching Your Child Respect For The Environment in Sustainability is owned by Carrieanddanielle.com. Permission to republish Dinosaurs In The Garden Of Eden: Teaching Your Child Respect For The Environment in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Read more at Carrie and Danielle: Sustainability
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:02 am
So the dinosaur was a sacrifice on the altar of magic- a magic that with your daughter's help,your husband will also be looking for more of in the beauty of the forest -thanks for sharing this moment. Actually what most struck me was the adult voice that is so quick to say, ” The magic is done” Thank heavens for the little people who ignore us.
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:46 am
My daughter is THREE today, what a nice way to celebrate her birthday, Carrie And Danielle, by publishing this on the very day.
And thank you, Pearl, you're so right. Here's to a new year of magic awareness!
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:06 am
This is a beautiful story Lucia and thank you for sharing. As per usual, you inspire me.
Jason
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:30 am
beautiful.. i love how you write!
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:33 am
thank you, Jason!
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:05 am
lucia:
i have to say that your short “stories” are some of the only ones i take time to read. please keep sending them. is there anyway we can get a compilation of all your writings? is there archives?
daphne
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:13 am
Hi Daphne,
You can get all of Lucia's fantastic articles in a couple of ways:
By clicking on her name underneath the title of the article, above, which will take you to a page listing all of her articles: http://carrieanddanielle.com/author/lucia-frang...
Or you can subscribe via RSS to a feed of Lucia's articles:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/CarrieAndDanielleLu...
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:50 am
Thank you once again for such a beautiful story. My daughter just turned 3 too and these magical moments never cease to feed my soul…
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:52 am
a magical coincidence!
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Once again, you've reminded us all, in such a beautifully realized fashion, that the magic part is never done! Please keep them coming!
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Yay – This reminds us to lighten up and simply see the magic that is already there!! LOVE THIS
Leanne
October 23rd, 2008 at 2:36 pm
How beautiful that she sees God's magic , when we are so conditioned to looking for man-made beauty. You must indeed have given her respect for the planet. A delightful story, what a birthday present for your daughter!
October 23rd, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Wow, that truly was beautiful. Your daughter indeed as the 'sight' to see the essence of the magic that's present in all of creation. Lovely.
October 23rd, 2008 at 6:14 pm
magical moments and memories you create for everyone Lucia, thank you.
October 24th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Thank you, Lucia…. I loved this…. I need to see the magic that is around me….
October 24th, 2008 at 7:32 am
I really enjoyed reading your story & it helps me think of some of the thngs I should be doing but sometimes am too much in a hurry to do. Thank you
October 24th, 2008 at 10:58 am
great age, isn't it? xo L
October 28th, 2008 at 10:48 am
wonderful writing! And anyone who is a mother can relate. Could we retain that childhood wonder and linger a little longer in the magic forest!
October 29th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
What a lovely story. Great reminder to look for the magic in small places and in small faces…
October 31st, 2008 at 5:06 am
The environment to grow up child world assume coming wold to
organic, we want provide provide pure products like oraganic
November 2nd, 2008 at 4:20 am
wonderful story, Lucia. You have a great sense of pacing right through to the final clincher.
November 2nd, 2008 at 5:22 am
How beautiful that she sees God's magic , when we are so conditioned to looking for man-made beauty. You must indeed have given her respect for the planet. A delightful story, what a birthday present for your daughter!
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:57 am
An honor to have WW read my story – my first writing teacher and a beautiful poetic mind himself. And his amazing wife was the first to put environmentalism and vegetarianism in my path. A dynamic duo indeed. (but I still can't eat much tofu…)
November 13th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Wow, Lucia! Loved it. Everyone with three year old daughters knows about “the magic”. We found our own magical dinosaur on Savary Island on the beach under a log. He was named, Murphy and now resides in Horseshoe Canyon!
November 14th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Deanne, that's hilarious! Dinosaurs back with the dinosaurs. Thank you for writing. xo L