While suffering poolside in Hawaii, I’ve been doing a lot of reading.  I finished my first book which I LOVED (Love Anthony) and began a second.  It’s a true story about a successful businesswoman who came upon a pan-handling eleven year old in New York.  She cared enough to reach out to this boy whose life was abuse, drugs, abandonment, homelessness and hunger.  They struck up a friendship and ended up changing each other’s lives.

Turns out, her childhood held some of the same characteristics as his.  Abuse, fear, abandonment.  Things she had never addressed until she met this boy.  Yet, she uses a quote that she believes in spite of her own experience and that of this boy.  “There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air is softer and the morning more fragrant than ever again.” (Elizabeth Lawrence).

No matter what kind of childhood we’re given, we are each born with that childlike quality that makes things more magic.  Maybe it’s because everything is still new.  Maybe it’s because we haven’t yet been hardened by disappointment and difficulty.  Or maybe it’s because when we are children we truly know what it means to love with abandon – people, things, places, life.

I want to be a grandma in a bad way.  I have a bad case of baby-itis.  So it’s no surprise that when I have seen little ones here, my heart and ears turn towards them and their little worlds, even if for just a few moments.

There were two little Australian kids at the pool with their parents yesterday.  Two toddler aged brothers who were splashing, laughing and running around the pool.  Their parents apologized for their loudness, but we all just smiled.  It was music to our ears.  Especially since all we had to do was watch.  At one point, one of the little guys was whining in the water because he couldn’t reach something that he wanted.  His daddy took it as an opportunity to share a life lesson with him.  I heard two phrases come out of his mouth as I walked by with my ears perked.  “If you want something, go and get it.” And, “If you don’t like something, change it.”  Valuable lessons that that child can take with him the rest of his life.

At the restaurant where we had dinner last night, the tiniest little girl was sitting next to her dad eating dinner. Couldn’t have even been two yet.  She was absolutely adorable and so well behaved that I couldn’t help staring at her.  Well-behaved, that is, until her dad got her out of her high chair and she promptly slapped him in the face.  Back into the high chair she went for the rest of the meal.  Another lesson learned.  Sweet talking daddy will get you much further than hitting him.  Again, a valuable lesson that she will remember when she’s 14 and wants to date.

Last night after we got back to the condo, we were all relaxing in the living area when we heard a little girl’s voice saying, “Mommy?  Mommy?”  It seemed to be getting louder, closer and more urgent.  Mark got up to go and see what was going on.  When he didn’t come back inside, I decided I’d better go and join him.  Sure enough, on the stairs of the floor below us, a six year old girl was standing there crying, obviously panicked that her mom wasn’t around.  Mark kept his distance, knowing that she had probably been warned about strangers, but tried to reassure her by saying that he would wait with her until her mom showed up.  That’s when I came and told her that yes, we would definitely help her find her mom.

Mom and dad showed up moments later, having gone on a walk to go and smoke away from the building.  When she saw them she burst into relieved but “you really scared me” type tears – the kind that comes out in loud gulps and gasps.  Hopefully, it was her parents that learned a valuable lesson in this case, but she was safe again and hopefully her childlike trust was not too damaged in the process.

I witnessed each of these kids from afar.  I don’t know their stories.  I don’t know what they’ve been through or will go through.  But I know that for now at least they have two parents that love them, they have food and shelter, and clearly are doing well enough financially to be able to vacation in Hawaii.  Any and all of those things can change.  But, I hope that whatever their lives hold that they will be able to maintain some of their sense of magic and that at least some of it follows them into adulthood.  That place “where colors are brighter, the air is softer and the morning more fragrant…”

I hope that for all of us…

Matthew 18:2-4 – Jesus called a little child to come to him. Jesus stood the child before the followers. Then Jesus said, “I tell you the truth. You must change and become like little children {in your hearts}. If you don’t do this, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. The greatest (most important) person in the kingdom of heaven is the person that makes himself humble like this child.”