EXPLORE

Today, it was unseasonably warm.  We took our two sons to nearby Hagar Beach on the shore of Lake Michigan.  We've been many times ourselves, but for them, it was uncharted territory.
Landon, who is almost three, announced to us that he could see the ocean.
I explained that what he was looking at was Lake Michigan, and that it was not only not an ocean, we are very very far from the ocean.
He was perplexed.  There is a shoreline with beautiful sand and water as far as the eye can see.  No end in sight.  It was sunny and beautiful and looking at that water still makes me feel so small, so to him, it must seem enormous. 
Landon has actually been to the ocean before.  Last year in March we spent a week in Florida on the Gulf of Mexico.  He loved it.
So, really, other than the salinity of the water, to him there is no difference.  He still loved it.
Hanson was only concerned with eating unhealthy amounts of sand.  After he realized that it is not the most tasteful of snacks he began to squeeze it in his hand, picking it up and letting it run through his fingers.  I could see the wheels turning in his head at the amazement he was feeling in his palm.

Today my little men were explorers.  The could give Christopher Columbus a run for his Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria.  They soaked in every aspect of that beach as if it were the most exotic of locations. 
And they taught me something.
I've lived here for the majority of my life.  I've been to that very beach so many times I can't count.  Yet I've still never enjoyed it the way I did today.  I didn't go to swim or build sand castles or even to tan.  I went to share the beauty of nature with them, but somehow, they are the ones who shared it with me.  I could have gone there by myself, with every intention of exploring that beach, and I'd have focused more on how windy it was and that I had chosen the wrong shoes to wear. 
But with them, I felt the sand in my toes.  I smelled the Lake Michigan air, which is like nothing else on earth.  I heard the waves and the seagulls.  I saw them play with my husband, the water crashing on shore just feet behind them, and the most beautiful thing about that sight was not the lake, but the three of them together. 
I slowed down and enjoyed a piece of my world that I've never really stopped to notice. 
I don't need the Gulf of Mexico when I've got Hagar Beach within twenty minutes of my house.
Exploration is not about how far you travel.  It is about how much you discover.
I have a new goal for this year.  I'm remixing my New Year's Resolution, which was to play outside more.  I don't just want to play outside.  I want to explore my world, with them as my guides.