Mom, AJ, Autumn and I shared an outing after school to the park where “the grandmas” watched the grandchildren attempting tennis.  Such a delightful time was enjoyed by all as we cheered on the players inexhaustible efforts.  Unknown to Mom or me during the ride from place to place Autumn was recording her memory of this day together in the drawing pictured above.  I love that grandma (that would be me) is in her sunglasses with her hair flying in the wind!  Big brother’s tongue is hanging out.   The details that come from a child’s imagination are inspiring.  They are aware of so much more than we think and their minds are sponges soaking up everything they see and hear.  Why is it then that as adults instead of soaking it all up more often we seek to tune it all out?  Where does life become serious business instead of the gift that it is? Each year it’s a younger and younger generation that loses the innocence and joy of being the child. The following incomplete list describes people I come in contact with every day.

 

·                           Sweet, happy, friendly, content folks who make you just want to sit on the porch with them and share a homemade cookie watching the cars go by.

·                           Sad, lifeless, and withdrawn people who won’t even look you in the eye.

·                           Bitter, angry people who find something to complain or holler about all day.

·                           Smiling faces of people who love to smell the roses, not order a newspaper and never turn the TV on.

·                           Hurting, desperate, frightened people who live in fear and always in crisis mode.

·                           Truly caring people yet too overwhelmed with their own life troubles to be there for another.

·                           Rebellious independent people who are going to do their own thing without any concern for how it affects others.

·                           Exhausted people so stressed they no longer have the ability to be kind.

·                           Anxious, gossipy, insecure people who just worry and live in expectation of gloom and doom.

·                           Funny carefree people who always make you laugh and forget any trouble in the world.

·                           People who are one of the above one day and another next.

Contemplating this list it is easy for me to choose the asterisks I would want to be used to describe myself.  Perhaps I will concentrate on my granddaughter’s drawing- and imagine myself being exactly what she saw that day all the time………………..