Instinct for the Beautiful

Rachel Carson
"A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful, is dimmed and even lost  before we reach adulthood."

Amelia loves being outside and collecting her "treasures".  Every day she brings me something she collects because it's pretty or it smells good; many times her treasures are carried all day long in her pockets waiting for the moment she can share them with me.  "I got this just for you, Momma!  Smell how good it smells! I knew you would like it."  She finds beauty everywhere.  This is her little table full of things she loved this day - a stick of cedar, a few blooming purple flowers (weeds) and a candle that smells like fresh air and ocean.

On this day, she dragged  home (and made me knock one extra out of a tree) some fallen palm branches to make this little house.  Later she took the branches down and made a secret entrance to the stairs with them by placing them between the posts on top of the railing.  To get in the house you have to crawl under them.