Sometimes I wish I would record the conversations the boys and I have in the car. I tell you, I really feel like we have some of our most meaningful and pointed conversation while we traverse the roads across Phoenix.
Today, while running errands we came across a sad scene. A dog was standing along side the road, no owner in sight and immediately I thought to watch out for the dog and wondered why it was standing so close to the road and not moving. It was then that I saw that its companion, another puppy had been hit by a car. I guess my immediate reaction was to gasp in sadness which of course immediately grabbed the attention of the boys. (Again one of those moments of reacting before thinking). Right away the boys said, "Mom, whats wrong" and then asked about the sad puppy in the road.
As we continued driving along, because I was very confident the poor doggy had gone onto better places, the boys begged and pleaded with me to go back and help it. Gabriel said, "Mom, call 911, its an emergency!" Michael said, "Mom, we got to go give that dog a lot of shots to help it feel better" and even though I tried everything, I could to change the subject, distract them enough. I even turned on the music, but they were NOT moving away from the subject of the poor doggy. It was then I decided to tell them that we should just pray for the dog and that someone will stop to help the doggies.
Immediately Gabriel started to pray, "God, since Mom won't stop, please have someone else stop to help the doggy to get better and be happy. Amen"
Then Michael "Dear God, please let the doggy get a lot of shots so it can run across the street again. Amen"
And then they said, "Now you Mom" so I began, "Dear God, please let the doggie be out of pain and please let it be happily welcomed into Doggy Heaven Amen."
Upon my final word, Gabriel immediately interjected, "Mom, there is no doggie Heaven, there is only one Heaven and Mom what will happen to the dog's body."
Again, not thinking before speaking I said, well Gabriel someone will bury the dog's body and the dog's spirit will go to Doggy Heaven." (Why do I decide to have these conversations with a 4 and 5 year old? Why do I feel the need to go so in depth about things... why did I have to open my mouth to begin with?")-- the thoughts running through my mind.
Can you guess what their next question was? "Mom, what is a spirit and why does it go to Heaven?"
"Well boys, your spirit is what is on the inside of you, how you think, how you feel and the one part of you that makes you special. When we pass away, we leave our body behind and it is just our spirit that goes to Heaven." Thinking I had done a pretty good job coming up with that answer on the fly, I was hoping I had put that subject to rest. Instead, not more than a minute later Gabriel said...
"Oh I know what spirit is Mom, it is what Tom sees on "Tom and Jerry" (as in the cartoon) right?"
Shaking my head, sighing internally, I just responded, "Yes Gabriel, it is just like Tom and Jerry." And with that, our conversation about spirits was over.
Until next time,
Angie
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