Mommy, Please Bring Me Back A Piece Of China

I love the simplicity with which children look at life. My four-year-old daughter knows she lives in a town located in the state of Massachusetts and that these places are located on a planet called Earth which looks like the blow-up ball that her grandmother gave her. She also knows that mommy and daddy are going somewhere on Earth called China.

Last year at school, my daughter went on walks in the woods with her class. On these walks the children would find “treasures” that they would bring home. One of the treasures my daughter found and kept in her coat pocket for a month was a worn, broken piece of china with a little bit of a flower pattern on it. Just to be really clear, we’re talking a piece of a broken plate!

As we were getting ready to leave for our trip to China with a capital C, my youngest said very sincerely, “Mommy, please bring me back a piece of China when you go. I only found one of these treasures on my walks at school.” As I fly over the North pole to the other side of the world to the land of China, I wonder how I can bring some of the simplicity in perspective that our children have, back into my hectic life.