Specificity

In past years I wrote everyday. Much of that time I was in school writing for an assignment, in a journal, and sometime just for fun. Then I taught school and I wrote to provide examples of writing for my classes. Then I had 3 kiddos and the writing basically just stopped. Now I am trying to restart my "writing engine" but I find that the idea supply has also stopped. The other night I was sitting on the couch with my very hyper 4 year old. After turning a few flips and jumping on me she looked at my blank legal pad and the pen I was holding and asked what I was doing. I explained that I was trying to think of things to write about and asked her for suggestions. (This was not a brilliant move on my part.) So she thought for a minute and said, "Plants, Momma, you should write about plants." I thanked her for the idea and tried to explain that I wanted something more specific. "What's spapacific?" came her reply. In my great wisdom I explained the word specific to her. I told her how there might be a broad topic and that I was looking for one idea or one detail from that topic. After a few moments of glassy-eyed stare she nodded and said, "So what does spapacific really mean?" I tried another tack. I suggested trees for a topic, and went on to say that I could write only about mesquite trees or crepe myrtles. Her little brow furrowed in concentration. In an effort to clarify I said, "Instead of writing about the whole tree, I could write about the bark. That would be specific." She nodded and said "ok." We sat in silence for a few moments, then suddenly the ideas began to flow freely from my daughter.

"Momma, you could write about flowers; no just the petals. Or Pumpkins, no just the seeds I like pumpkin seeds momma. I know, you should write about unicorns; wait just the horn" I got the giggles from this very "spapacific" list which only encouraged her more. She hollered, "Cows? Ducks? Fans? Blinds?"

Obviously at this point the conversation had deteriorated so much that I just put down my pen and cuddled my baby.

Even though I didn't choose any of the topics that she suggested, I gained a great topic, and a lot of insight into the mind of a 4 year old. Her world is very concrete. Where the world of adults is quite abstract.
I don't think I am going to try and tackle that one just yet with her.

Love on your kids. They are precious.
Am