Yesterday Maia and I saw a caterpillar on the road. She picked it up, and fearing she would pinch it too hard, or put it in her mouth, I gently returned it to the ground. We watched it for a while, admiring its coloring and the way it moved so gracefully. A wonderful mother-daughter moment in nature, I stopped to think, just long enough to miss the opportunity to prevent disaster.
I screamed ‘no’ and reached to move her away from the caterpillar, just a split second too late to prevent her foot from crashing down on it. She screamed when saw the remains of the caterpillar, complete with colorful fluid leaking out, and frantically said “more, more, more”, while wildly gesturing the same. She wanted the caterpillar back and all I could do was say, “all gone, all gone”. At 19 months, the word ‘death’ would have meant nothing, and certainly ‘death because you killed it by intentionally stomping on it’ would have been too cruel.
She cried and cried, but now she has a glimmer of understanding that living things die, that actions have consequences, that she has to power to affect other creatures. Not easy lessons to learn, especially all at once.
Aw… one of those tough life lessons. Probably as tough for her mother as for her. But still a precious mother/daughter moment… just not quite as idyllic as it started out…
And maybe a lesson for you too that no matter how much you want to/try to, you won’t be able to protect Maia (or every caterpiller) from some amount of pain or from those icky lessons that life seems to dish out at annoyingly regular intervals.