Inside vs. Outside

Today I opened my kitchen drawer and found a stick. It was very carefully arranged along side my measuring cups and rolling pin.

Then I looked outside my kitchen window and noticed a cereal bowl nestled in the branches. "It's a bird's nest," my daughter informed me. She refrained from saying, "duh" but I could see it in her face. How silly of me. Of course it's a bird's nest.

Sometimes I feel like my children all but erase the boundaries of inside vs. outside, wild vs. domestic, and backyard vs. kitchen drawer. But for little kids these petty categories don't even exist. The world is simply the world, and it is theirs for the taking. I try to allow my girls the freedom to move around in their world without bumping into my rules anymore than necessary, but that benevolent attitude becomes short lived when we get down to three cereal bowls left in the entire house. Maybe I should check the sandbox. Or the trees in the front yard.