Guest post from PH:

This morning I had a conversation with our son that went something like this:

"Buddy, you can't touch the stove."
"Why?"
"Because it's hot and you'll burn yourself."
"Why?"
"Why is it hot or why will it burn you?"
"Yeah."
"I don't know how to answer that."
"Why?"
"Because."
"Why?"
"Just don't touch the oven, okay buddy ?"
"Why?"
...

"Why" is the question. Buddy asks it in response to just about everything? It starts as a curiosity but continues as a matter of repetition. I think that underneath these "whys" is a desire to understand the world around him and how he fits. During this transition, this word has come to be his favorite, and I wonder if it's driven by the disruption watching a house get packed up, saying lots of goodbyes, and cross-country move and all that that it entails.

I see it and hear it from Kiddo as well. Her whys are much harder and sometimes more subtle, and most often unsaid.

"Why did we move across the country anyways?"
"Why would someone break into our home and bust my piggy bank?"
"Why do I have to leave a friend?"
"Why did we leave in the first place?"
"Why are there mean people in the world?"

The frustrating part is that I don't have answers, either ample ones for Buddy or adequate ones for Kiddo, much less a desire to engage their curiosity. But I get it. As our bodies, minds, souls, our family make this move from West to East, we are hungry for understanding. I crave answers and affirmations. There are so many unknowns, questions left unanswered, new ones that we can't even begin to process. And I don't want silence or 'because' for an answer either. So I'm going to engage. I'm going to listen to their questions and enter the dialogue, and I'm also going to start asking them again. I think dreaming is important and dreaming starts with questions.