It’s a special privilege when a grandparent gets to keep a grandchild for a week or for a weekend or even for an overnight stay!  The bonding that takes place, the granting special requests that parents most certainly would have denied, the having fun while doing nothing very significant—all of these characterize grandchild/grandparent time together.

But did you know how much you—a grown-up—can learn from the younger set?  In my case this was a two-year-old.

I learned that if I opened my eyes there was fun just waiting to happen on every corner!  The library folks were there on the front lawn with beads to thread for bracelets and bubble mixture in tubs ready to insert the big spans of yarn to produce bubbles.  They were there with pizza and juice boxes, and they let us crash their party!  What delight we can find in the unexpected!

I learned that if I sharpen my imaginary skills that I might see things in the world I otherwise might miss—take for example an old stump standing in my neighbor’s yard.  I had seen it many, many times—in fact every day as I have exited my house.  But with Lily Mae’s help I was able to see a leg standing straight up out of the ground—FASCINATING!.  And coming home from church, the two of us caught a different vantage point—the same old stump but this time it was clear that one broad segment to the right side of the stump was the four fingers of a hand, and a single smaller branch sticking out to the left clearly was the thumb!  How could I have missed it on all my previous trips home from the church!

But most of all I learned that life never has to be faced with a ho-hum kind of attitude.  No joyless, expressionless, yawn-upon-yawn kind of existence for us!  After all, “This is the day the Lord has made!”  This is a day open for adventure.  This is a day to experience the world using all our senses.  This is a time for bringing a sense of anticipation to every hour of the day! 

Thank you, Lily Mae, for all you taught me in our short time together!  Truly all I needed to know, I learned from a two-year-old!