Weekly Walks
Elias and I have been taking walks around the neighbourhood every Wednesday night. The walks started after he began having trouble at school. After some reflection, I realised that I must have neglected him.
Elias is an extremely affectionate boy. For friends and neighbours, he jumps at every opportunity to lend a helping hand, or to show kindness. For people who are close to him (like the Oh-So-Blessed-Me), he is always over-flowing with exuberant love.
On the flipside, he also has a huge love tank that needs to be filled. When his love tank is not filled, he becomes reticent, irritable and it shows up in the poor quality of his work and his attitude.
So we started our weekly walks.
This is our first walk, to Golden Jasmine.
Elias does not like to take photos nowadays. But he gamely posed for me that night
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| Tonight, Elias brought two torchlights along. We walked for close to one hour. |
Tonight was exciting. I offered to see his “snail hole” (Apparently it is where the snails live. He had noticed that snails were crawling into it and investigated).
But it was really dark, and there are all sorts of “wild” creatures out there in the night. So while walking around, I kicked something, which turned out to be a toad. I screamed in shock (but of course). In my hurry to get away from the toad, I stepped on a snail and crushed it. I screamed again, this time in alarm. I ran away from that awful grass patch, onto concrete ground, whimpering away.
I apologised to Elias, because I know he really loves these creatures.
He was really sweet. He told me that I had just crushed the snail’s shell, and the snail will grow a new one.
In horror I asked :”You mean the snail is still alive? Oh no, perhaps we should kill it, instead of letting it suffer”
He said :”It is better to be alive and suffer, than be dead. When you die, you go to hell”
(That’s an interesting perspective, and deserves my respect)
I said :”It’s an animal…”
He said :”So it will go to animal hell, or animal heaven. If it is a herbivore, it will go to heaven. If it it is a carnivore, it will go to hell. If it is an omnivore, it will go to a court of law, to decide on whether it goes to heaven or hell”
It was hilarious. We had lots of fun.
Elias is doing better at school now. The weekly walk is not the only remedial action we took for him, but it is certainly the most enjoyable of all.
His comments are so interesting, and he says them with so much conviction. Haha, and I’m really glad to hear that these weekly walks are bearing fruit! I love walks too, esp. with my hubby. 😉
Hi June. Elias is like my husband, I think. My hb and I used to take long walks when we were dating. Now we go jogging, cos I am trying to regain my fitness. My hb is my personal trainer! how lovely is that?
I think it’s a great idea to have weekly walks with your son! Actually, my boy sounds a bit like Elias, he’s also very affectionate with people he knows and he does try to help me out around the house now (but maybe more like a game for him at this age!). He has a very interesting ideas about animal heaven/hell! Ever asked him where he got that idea from? Conversations with children can be so much more interesting than adults sometimes, and they offer some pretty unusual perspective! 🙂
hi ruth! actually conversations with my boys are often like that. perhaps boys are naturally cheeky, and they have lots of comical ideas. and you are right, conversations with children can be so much more interesting, because they have such a refreshing perspective of things. when yours grow bigger, you will experience it!