VICTORIA – Nola is crossing the field, seemingly searching for treasure. But the 2-year-old is not hunting for gold.
“Some of them are white,” Nola’s mom says, pointing at the wild-flowers growing out of the grass. “Some of them are white and purple.” The girl's baby brother Bowen may be interested in pausing to ponder the petals, or looking at the leaf-buds forming on the ends of the tree branches -- Nola is not.
She continues running through the park, determined to find something better. Then she spots a hole, drops to the ground, and starts digging. Perhaps it contains what our intrepid explorer’s been looking for. “Looking at nature,” her mom sings a made-up soundtrack to her daughter’s adventure. “Digging in holes, holes, holes…”
“There’s a whole other world under the dirt…” she starts telling Nola, before the girl interrupts with a loud, “There it is!” Mom gasps with excitement. Nola digs faster. Mom asks, “See anyone in there?” Nola answers, “Yes!”
But it’s just a bug. The beetle is certainly a wonderful creature to consider, and Nola lies on her stomach to get as close to it as she can. She even invites baby Bowen to see it.
But the bug can only keep Nola’s attention for so long. The girl gets up and continues her unrelenting search. She scales the greatest of heights (a staircase) and the deepest of depths (below the staircase).
“There it is!” She holds out her hand to show me the wiggling treasure. “His name is Wormy”. I ask her what Wormy the Worm does. Nola answers, “He talks.”
It seems he talks to her in a language that most adults have forgotten to hear. As she cradles the Wormy in her hand, his wormy-word seem to cultivate curiosity. “Where’s his bones?” she wonders to her mom. “He has no bones,” she answers. “Isn’t that crazy!”
Wormy’s words seems to expand hearts too. “He love me,” Nola says beaming down at the worm, while the worm raises his head towards her.
“He does love you, eh?” Mom says, before finishing that made-up song. “Spending the day in nature, spending the day in the sun.”
Wormy is then placed gently back on the ground, after inspiring the sort of adventurous spirit that lasts a lifetime.
