Her wisdom

On a grey Wednesday morning, we headed for the Sentier des Crêtes, a beautiful trail in Orford National Park. Mara picked up every maple leaf she found on the ground, smelling each of them, trying to find the sweetest-smelling one. "This one smells just like maple sap, mama!" And in the same breath, she chatted away: "Can we make maple reduction this year?... Oh no! We don't have maple trees big enough to tap here... Can we go to the sugar shack? Hum! I can't wait to have some maple taffy on the snow!" This sweet child of mine is almost always happy... Further up the path, she was delighted to spot a moose trail, the smell of the decaying leaves, touching the birch bark, saying how soft it was and how waterproof it was, how the first nations made recipients with it to collect the maple sap in the spring, sealing the seams with fir pitch... All the while, Mathilde was not in a great mood, complaining of being too cold... and soon too warm... and a million things in between...

:: Homemade dehydrated fruit leather: the best energy-packed hiking food! ::

Aisha was running in front as the little mountain goat that she is, training for her upcoming run up Mount Orford with papa, not wanting anybody to pass her. Mara found a caterpillar and carried it all the way to the top, "because she'll like to see the view too, mama!" and fed her some date.

On the way down, even our charade play did not quite cut it. Lil'sis was still complaining... and it was driving me nuts, sucking the joy out of me... Mara looked at me and said: I wish Mathilde could appreciate how lucky we are to be hiking here in the colorful leaves, on a Wednesday, together. Such simple wisdom. Some people truly have a gift to see beauty in everything, a propensity to happiness. This sweet girl of mine truly does. We call her Mara-bonheur (bonheur means happiness in French) and she truly helps me to see how blessed we are. That amazing teacher of mine.