In summer, when school term responsibilities are lifted from children, they utilize “vacation” time for play.  One universal form which play usually takes is to walk about, or better to run, while observing all manner of things which one encounters as one passes by.  Running through the neighborhood to a friends house, walking briskly with fishing rod and bait in hand on the way to a favorite fishing hole, or my favorite pass time — taking very long walks in the woods.  Pre-verbal small children can be observed to possess a tenacious power of observation, the ability to identify all manner of objects for examination.

As an adult, (an older child) I find satisfaction in that mode of being. 

These photos were taken several days ago.  Camera close at hand, passing through the yard, and then in the neighborhood these elements caught my interest.  The initial photo, the stump of a massive old oak, is a sign that life and death, emergence and decay are opposite sides of the same coin.  Entire communities of life, bugs, bacteria are make a home in the cellulose fibers of the old tree, which return to the soil, nourishment awaiting a new iteration of life.

Delight is even better when shared is it not?

A child is innocence and forgetfulness,
a new beginning, a gamble,
a wheel that spins automatically,
a first step,
the divine gift of being able to consent.

— Excerpt, The Stranger by Albert Camus