Respecting Our World - reminder from Dakota

I bought a container so that Dakota's toys would be able to be put away for the night and not strewn all over the floor or piled at the end of the day near the fireplace. It was fascinating to watch him with this container. As you can see, toys are readily accessible, but I realized he wasn't playing with them. He'd approach the container and sniff, but wouldn't remove his toy, not even one!

If I can humanize his actions, he was not sure if he should, i.e. if he was allowed. He is very respectful and gentle with my things. Sometimes I have to pick up a toy if it is too close to the fireplace bucket. Aha! That was it! He saw it as mine, not his.

So I encouraged him verbally to "go get your toys" and finally dumped the toys out and was rough with the container so he knew he didn't have to be gentle. He's still a bit tentative with the new toy box.

I try to live my life by leaving a "footprint" of care with others' items, spaces, and character. I remember my mother telling me to "leave things the way I found them". This maxim has lasted into my adulthood. I guess I taught Dakota this without realized how he would generalize the behavior!

This leads me to ponder how changed our world would be if we all treated the world, others' things, and people with that level of respect. Maybe I can remind myself of this maxim daily, to leave the world bette than when I came. I pray this is so.