Morning Walk

This morning, like most mornings, I took Evan, seven months, on a walk. We walk on a trail near our house that was once an old railroad track. The trail winds alongside a river and is largely shaded. On these early summer mornings, it's cool and quiet. We hear the falls in the river and the squirrels rustling in the underbrush. Occasionally, we pass a jogger, or a biker. (Bikers are of particular interest to my little boy, who leans all the way around the side of his jogger to see them go by.)

Evan loves these walks. Or, to rephrase, I love these walks and assume he does too.

This morning, I could see a small animal sitting in the middle of the trail. From a distance I couldn't tell what it was. A chipmunk? A groundhog? As we closed in, I realized it was a baby bunny. I quietly slowed the jogger down and whispered down to Evan, "Look, Evan, it's a baby bunny. He's hopped out to see us." We inched along in our approach and the little creature didn't move -- just twitched its tiny nose and bent its little ears forward. I continued to whisper to Evan, not wanting him to miss any of this, "What a cute little guy he is. Look how little..."

We rolled up to within a foot of the little rabbit, who didn't know to be afraid of us. When we got that close, I suppose he decided that we were threatening after all and hop-hopped into the brush along the side of the trail.

The top of my son's little blue hat had remained perfectly still through this whole interaction, while he stared with curious delight at the bunny and listened to my narration. Once our little friend had hopped away, I leaned down to see Evan's expression...and found him sound asleep.

The magical moment that I thought we had shared was in fact shared only by me and the bunny.

I love these morning walks.