There's a stone in my purse.

I carry a stone in my purse.  Well, more of a pebble actually.  It's not especially pretty nor interesting to the eye.

The Spawn are at times like Labradors insofar as to say when you take them for a walk they pick up anything and everything as you roll your eyes and repeat like a stuck record 'Drop it!' though with The Spawn being two legged rather than four we often add on any of the following 'it's filthy!' 'You don't know where it's been!' 'A dog could have had a wee on that!'  If we make the rookie error of being distracted we'll return our attention only to find one of the little cretins attempting to take half a tree for a walk or something.

We're not absolutely mean, only hobbyist meanies so we let them have their pet sticks an what not and stockpiles of natures bounty, within reason.

One day on the homeward school run, The Toddler stopped a midst the tsunami of children and parents, without a care in the world, scrabbled about in the gravel and presented Thing Two with a stone.  Thing Two wrinkled her nose, impatient to get out of the crowded school grounds and back home to play and offhandedly dismissed the stone with a 'what would I want that for?' statement and readied to toss it away unaware of The Toddlers feelings that would be tossed away with it.

I explained to her how I had a similar stone in my pocket and one in my purse that had been there for months.  She looked bemused so I continued to explain.  It's not what it is, it's the fact he found it and gave it to her.  It was the only thing he had to give and he chose to give it to her.  In my eyes that makes it more precious than gold. She got it.  I could see her perception of the world shift ever so slightly within her she remembered, somewhere, that instinctive appreciation.

It's so easy to just discard these gifts and chide them for wasting time or picking up crap.  Don't.  In their eyes this is their treasure for they see the true value in things, the wonder that we so oft lose upon growing up, the marvel in the little things.  The appreciation of the seemingly insignificant. At that instant that treasure is the only thing they have and they chose to give it to you.  This is love.

So I keep this little stone in my purse as carefully as if it was a piece of his heart, because in a way, that's exactly what it is.