Passively observing a child is such a different thing from actively playing with her. Their memories of that day will be quite different ones from my own. I remember Paul eagerly wading through mud with our daughter searching for the perfect pumpkin. He would hold numerous pumpkins aloft for me to help judge if it was round enough, orange enough, perfect enough to be Emma s very first. Emma toddled happily beside him, munching on a new fall apple, delighting in her father s joy in this task.
Life is filled with long lines and bad weather.
There is more involved in a trip to the pumpkin patch than simply picking a pumpkin. In the great debate about quality versus quantity time, the state of truly being with our children is an art that is not understood by many. A friend tells me that her husband s idea of playing with their child is to read the newspaper while their daughter plays with her toys at his feet. Standing on the periphery, afraid to get our feet muddy, does not show our children that we value them. Life is not so much linear as circular.