life and death

so this weekend while we were gardening, we came across a lizard.

a very, um, *still* lizard.

meghan asked me if she could pick him up. i said sure.

she chickened out and wanted me to pick him up so i did.

she asked where his family is. i told her i didn't know.

she said that they will miss him so we have to get him back to his family.

i very gently but honestly told her, honey, he's dead though.

i looked at her very closely while she processed this information.

her eyes filled with shiny tears and she asked, but what about his family?

now it was my turn to tear up and i said, honey, i don't know. this is what happens in nature and we have to respect it.

she then asked me what happened.

i told her that stormie probably stepped on the lizard while trying to play with it.

she yelled at storm. i would venture to say that storm didn't care.

then meghan went back to her sandbox and played.

it's so hard to learn about about unpleasant things. i could see that she truly felt bad for this little lizard and his family.

and i had to be the one to teach her that lesson, which broke my heart.

but for all the crazy that this child is (and it's a lot of crazy) - she is a compassionate, sympathetic child.

i love her so much.