The Real Need Was In The Little Things

Posted on January 27, 2015

What do rain, rhinos, overcast, lions, wind, giraffes, trees, birds, and bugs all have in common? Right! The Oregon Zoo of course.

There is no experience that compares to a trip to the Oregon Zoo. Where else can you go where the wind blows continually, the rain falls hard and sideways, and you get all the aromatic scent of animal dung you could wish for at a  price? Yep! The zoo.

What’s even more astounding than this? Well, we actually have willingly participated in this endeavour multiple times over the years.

“It’s for the kids,” we say as we examine our heads while thinking through the rationale behind taking these excursions. Really! It’s for the kids? “Ha!” I say. It’s not just for the kids, it’s because there is something alluring about wild beasts. We like them… a lot! Maybe they will be active, alert, and loud. Nothing like a good monkey chase going on, or lions roaring like crazy. Hippos playing in the pond under our noses, and the elephants wide awake, outside, and frisky. We love it all!

What we don’t love are all the people who are doing the same thing we are, and all at the same time. “Are all the malls closed today and everyone thought a zoo trip would be a good idea?”

Seriously! Why today of all days?

In the end it doesn’t matter. All the people and all the elements are not enough to daunt us. We will persevere and even return to do it again in the future. After all, it’s the zoo. Of course we will be back.

I have to admit that once the kids are older it is a bit more fun. Having them sitting in a stroller as a toddler looking at some fuzz on their blanket isn’t quite why we came. If you had multiple kids like we did, you had the pleasure of having both the older and toddler age kids all at once.

I remember one trip to this wonderland when my heart stopped and fear froze me in place for a moment. The thing about lots of people means being vigilant about where all the kids are at every moment. There is so much bustling going on that the idea that one of the kids may have wandered off was alarming to me. That was something Marm and I were concerned about, and it kept us on constant alert.

We had had a great time roaming around the place. We had seen most of the exhibits and were on the downhill side of the large loop that took us past all the critters. I think all that was left to see were the penguins, bats, and maybe another something-or-other. As we made our way into the bat cave, no pun intended, all of us were in a tight group. Annie and Aaron were seven and five, and Abbey was not quite two.

The two older kids were free to move around and were staring intently into the  large glass enclosed cage which housed the myriads of bats. Abbey was safely strapped into the stroller and just a step or so away. I have to admit, it was really fascinating to watch all those bats. Some were hanging upside down and asleep, while others were flitting from here to there. The bats definitely were holding our attention. We were glued to them and their ghoulish antics.

Suddenly an ear-piercing scream cuts through everything. In an instant I knew it was Abbey. I didn’t know why she was screaming, only that she was screaming. In that brief moment of paralyzing fear my mind immediately went to… she’s being snatched by someone.

I was instantly ready to hurt somebody if they were trying to take our baby! As I spun around to see who might be there I saw no one. I was confused for a moment at why she was screaming. She hadn’t stopped yet and it was getting worse. Both Marm and I dashed over to her and I remember not seeing any reason for her to be so upset.

Marm saw it first, and pointed. There sitting pretty as you please on the edge of Abbey’s stroller was some sort of small fly. To Abbey it must have seemed like the biggest and nastiest flying bug she had ever seen. She was completely undone.

I waved my hands to make it leave, and It flew away with no fanfare at all. Marm immediately rescued Abbey from the stroller. As Marm was soothing Abbey I was recovering from all the commotion. I remember thinking that a little bug like that shouldn’t be that big of a deal.  After all, I was just about to hurt someone if she was being taken from us. Now that would have been a big deal. This small bug looked tame in comparison.

I watched Marm as she held Abbey, talked to her, and loved on her. I made note of how she was making sure our little girl felt safe and protected.

At times I could get caught up in the “big” thing like, “someone taking our child”, and would miss the little thing like,  “comforting them” when I thought it wasn’t too big a deal. Marm knew what was important and was doing it. A good lesson for me to learn early as our kids continued to grow. Often times the real need was in the little things.