“The bus farm is where the buses go to sleep. The yellow buses don’t come, only the orange buses.” ~ Phoebe

Growing up I can remember chasing searchlights that swung across night skies. Though mom probably drove us straight there, for me it was a mystery. A work of geometry my basic math mind could barely fathom. Not to mention I was directionally challenged. So what seemed to be racing up and down streets – in and out of traffic – was probably just the quickest route.

I shared this with my friend in college. We could see the searchlight in the distance and I retold chasing them as a kid. But – since college students are still kids – my friend smiled and off we raced to find what it was all about. This time we really did meander in and out of streets. Probably at breakneck speed (though we now understood geometry, safety was still a few years away). Finally we pulled up to a repair shop in the middle of the industrial buildings. We got out and discovered a man was  working on the lights…

On Wednesday Megan and Phoebe did something similar and followed the buses after dropping off Ivy. For Megan it was just a little out of the way trip to the Bus Barn. But for Phoebe, it was an adventure. A race to chase down the hulking buses. A trip of mystery into the land of the buses. Vehicles that Phoebe has never ridden, but now she knows where they sleep (the Bus Farm!). This moment became the center of our conversation when I got home. And Phoebe brought me into her wonder when she mentioned there were no yellow buses.

She was right. Buses are not yellow. They are like grapes, which do not come in purple. Instead Buses are orange. Or maybe our eyes deceive. A trek into wikipedia reveals that the color of buses has been standardized since 1939. A color called “school bus yellow”.  I am sure there is a reason this color is considered yellow, rather than orange.  Maybe it is the pigment mixture of red or blue that denotes the term yellow? I could not find the answer… And yet my eyes, my mind, declare the color to be orange.

As children we chase after wonder. We ask questions and race to find answers. Amazed at the brilliance and mystery of the world. Yet what we find is not always exciting. It is often broken and in need of repair. More often it does not make sense in our mind… and so we grow up. Busy at our own projects. We stop racing around to chase our wonderings. That is until a child reminds us… then we find that the Bus Barn really is more like a Farm. More buses are in the field than the building. And in this moment we may just find our spirits quieted. Taking in the moment. Creating a memory.

After-all, we do not want to wake up all of those buses!