Exploring

It hasn't changed with the new generation.
The preference remains the real over the artificial.
Just feet from the plastic toys and child-proof books, the tree and its colors and smells and prickliness and dangling ornaments is the most fascinating.
And that's good.
Unless you get to the dirt in the flowerpot before grandma does. And get the dirt into your little mouth for a taste before grandma washes your little fingers.
Still, it's gotta be how we know textures so well. When we see dirt, when we see the branches of a tree, we know how they feel, how they smell and how they taste because once we were almost one and touched and tasted them.
And hopefully our mother said something like "so we're one with the earth, are we?" to forgive our grandma.

I'm all for the real.
For the national parks. For the family gatherings.
For limiting screen life.
For talking rather than watching.
For the exploring and hiking. For the touching and tasting and living and experiencing.
There may be prickliness, there may be dirt, but that's the real stuff of life.
Reach for it.