We were quite the flotilla. Six adults, three teenagers and two dogs heading out on paddle boards and kayaks for an afternoon on Sparks Lake near Bend, Oregon. This idyllic lake in the shadow of majestic Mount Bachelor is the perfect place to spend a lazy summer afternoon with family and friends.

Our first stop was a small sandy beach which we thankfully had to ourselves. Sandwiches, drinks and snacks came out as we relaxed deeper into this sunsplashed day. Our kids Sam and Denali had other plans. They immediately set off down the beach together to explore. With no Instagram or Snapchat to distract them they quickly segued into pre-smartphone mode. It didn’t take long for them to discover that the water nearest the shore was teeming with two inch long, olive green tadpoles. Denali came running over excitedly to show me one of these critters wriggling in her cupped hands. The adults munched, the dogs splashed happily in the lake and our kids were off on their own Discovery Channel adventure. Sam came up and cut the top off of an empty soda can while Denali dug a shallow hole a few feet from the water. The can was now a tadpole scooper and the hole their new home. The kids created a similar project two summers ago in Hawaii. While hiking a deserted beach on Kauai we came upon a creek filled with small black tadpoles. Our young wildlife biologists spent a couple of hours constructing a temporary home for those tadpoles too.

Watching Sam and Denali today I marvel at how effortlessly they can turn into little kids again, they’re sixteen going on six. That childhood sense of wonder is still inside of them, simmering just below the surface and it takes but one simple thing, like today’s tadpole discovery, to awaken it. The older our kids get the fewer and further between these spontaneous moments occur. However by getting them away from the trappings of civilization and technology there’s always a chance of them occurring again.

Kids reach a certain age, some sooner than others, and it’s suddenly not cool to be a kid any longer. Why does this happen? There seems to be an unwritten chronologic age at which childhood ends. However, I know plenty of adults who manage to retain that kid spirit, refusing to “grow up”.  Kids are intuitive and sensitive and whip smart. Their wide-eyed “oh my god, look at this!” sense that everything is new and possibilities are unlimited is refreshing and magical to be around. To spend time with kids is to live in the moment, experiencing life to the fullest. I try every day to see the world through the eyes of a child and hang on to their unique sense of wonder.

On a recent camping trip I had the opportunity to spend some time with the four year old granddaughter of a friend. She and I walked along the rocky beach of a lake collecting bird feathers. I found one feather that was particularly beautiful. It was about half an inch wide and three inches long, light grey at the bottom, gradually giving way to a darker shade of grey. It abruptly changes into a band of pure white, terminating in a point of jet black.  I asked my little friend Raya what kind of bird she thought this feather came from. She paused for a moment, opened up her dark rimmed blue eyes as wide as they could go and exclaimed, “A rainbow bird!” 

May we all continue to see the rainbow birds of the world.