Violet has been enjoying walks outside these days. She loves to walk and swing her arms. She runs sometimes too. She talks with me and Baba and Jiji along the way about all of the things she sees. Today she squatted down for a long time looking at the seeds from the pine cones. She picked them up off the street and put them in the grass. She loves trees so much. She said "I see a great big pine tree. A pretty, big pine tree!" Next we walked further down the road and we heard the Bush Warbler singing his song. I whistled back to the bird and she said "Mama is a bird, Silly Mama." Then she started singing "Little Bird". I love her sweet voice. As we continued down the road we met a neighbor and her dog, Sakura. Violet was a little timid at first but I showed her how to approach her gently. Violet eventually reached out her hand and touched her. She said how soft she was. I was so happy that she was not afraid to touch her. Then we went to see the cow barn down the road and she talked to the baby and and mama cow.
At the end of our walk we came across an earthworm in the street. Violet stopped in her tracks and squatted down. She looked up at me and said, "It's a tiny tiny worm, mama." "It's an earthworm" I said. Baba picked up the worm gently off the street and carefully placed it in the grass. Violet looked at me and said, "Baba threw it on the ground." "Baba carefully picked it up and moved it to the grass, Violet. The worm is a living creature just like you. Mommy would never throw Violet down. We should never throw living creatures Violet." I said. She looked up at me with a gentle smile and said, "Kiss it?" Meaning she wanted to give it a kiss. I smiled so big and said, "Let's blow it a kiss." She blew kiss after kiss to the worm. Then she wanted to hold it. Baba tried to pick it back up to let Violet hold it but the worm wanted to stay in the ground so we said goodbye and blew another kiss. Her gentle heart teaches me every day. And I was thankful for Baba showing Violet how to care for bugs and worms and living things in general*. I never kill bugs or worms but I still can't bring myself to pick them up. ;)
*Although we will kill mosquitoes our family practices "non-violence to living creatures (the Hindu idea of "Ahimsa") when ever possible. Ahimsa means kindness and non-violence towards all living things including animals; it respects living beings as a unity, the belief that all living things are connected."
