"Come play zoo with me?" my grandson asked as I took off my boots in the doorway. "My room is just down the hall, Grandma" he said, as though it was my first time in his house.
I have no idea what "zoo" looks like when others sit with his wonderful menagerie of monkeys, elephants, bears - so many bears, zebras, tigers, a dinasaur, dolphins, a little rooster, and a penguin. But it is more like "Calvin ball" with rules and expectations constantly morphing than any other game I've played. Sometimes we organize, sort and count them. Sometimes we put Tyler onto his chair and see how many animals we can stack onto his head and lap before the pile collapses in laughter on the floor. Sometimes we pile them all into the box ark and pull them across the carpet ... all except the dolphin, of course, who didn't need an ark. nor the crocodile (as he fell out). nor the penguin (who loves to swim through the cold water).
And sometimes a zoo animal goes tragically missing, abandoned on a lone adventure.
So of course we must go looking for them.
Tyler climbs onto my back as I go down on all fours,
back down the hallway to find the lost creature.
...I learned that technique long ago from another one who loved to play on the floor
with his children and grandchildren
entering with them whatever world they created
following their directions into that world, and helping them build it.
perhaps that is the only way back into Narnia ...
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