My mom is brilliant.  We grew up in an oak forest.  This time of year, the leaves would start to drop and our five-acre property was covered.  At an early age she conditioned us to believe that raking the yard was a fun fall activity.  Every day after school we would come home anxious to rake giant piles of leaves, jump in them for a few hours, and then move them to the driveway.  Then she’d burn them up.  

One day my little sister posed the question “Who painted the trees?” which my mom answered with another question.  “Who do you think could do that?”  Her first guess was Paul Bunyan.  He’s a big guy.  He could certainly reach the tops of the trees… but his hands were also huge which means he might lack the attention to detail required for such a job.  There were also no footprints.  Paul Bunyan would surely leave footprints behind.  Her second guess was Tinkerbell.  But she soon became concerned that there would not be enough pixie dust for her to get to all of those trees.  I think she finally settled on God, and my mom was happy with that.

Now I have a kid.  She’s almost four.  She is FULL of questions.  Seriously.  So fucking curious.  The leaves are changing and she has been so excited to get out and enjoy the season.  And I love fall, so I’m always game for that.  She asked me why the leaves are changing colors.  I told her it’s something Mother Nature does when the seasons change.  I tried to explain photosynthesis, but she’s not even four.  We’ll save that lesson for kindergarten.

My MIL is an uber Christian.  Uber.  She watches my little lady (M) at least once a week, and this is one of the many reasons we’re so lucky to have our family closeby. Yesterday they went to the park, and M told me about the conversation they had.  She was telling her grandma how beautiful the leaves were, and that she asked her if she knew who painted the trees.  Grandma quickly replied with her default, “Jesus” paints the trees.  M insisted that it’s the work of Mother Nature, because “that’s what my mom told me.  And my mom is in charge.”

Oops.  Well, I guess this is one thing I am OK with her repeating.

N