пятница, 28 октября 2011 г.

Living Life Soaking Wet

By Karen Kelly

Grandmothers are just antique little girls.
~Author Unknown

Soaking wet, water dripping down my jeans and sweater, floor splattered and hair wet. That was me about twenty minutes ago. I was giving my almost one-year-old granddaughter a bath.

How can such a tiny little thing cause so much, well, wetness? Not to mention the whole, hear the water and it makes you want to "go," thing definitely also applies to little babies... and of course it happened the minute after I took off her diaper. The bathmat is the next thing to get a bath.

I wish you could have been there. Rubber ducky and baby girl had so much fun that it made me want to jump in. I heard belly laughs and tiny, adorable giggles that I hadn't heard before. She was cracking herself up, mindless that she had an audience. This laughter wasn't for me, or anyone else that could have been watching. She wasn't showing off. She was totally having a blast.

Every time I reached down to get her out, I got a mouthful of water. She did not want this bath to end! So engrossed was she in entertaining herself that she forgot to get bored. The water was getting cold, her little fingers and toes were turning to prunes, and still she did not want to get out. I finally had to fight her when I noticed the goose bumps on her compact little body. She wasn't ready for her adventure to end, but since I am the older and supposedly wiser one, I realized I had to take her out of the tub.

It made me think back to the last time I had so much fun that I laughed belly laughs and didn't want to stop what I was doing, regardless of a little discomfort. Sadly, I couldn't. Probably because I can't remember being a toddler. But that made me realize that somewhere in our long lost "baby years" we lose our sense of unselfconscious fun. We lose the knack of entertaining ourselves to the point of laughing and giggling regardless of who is watching.

In my self-righteous "grandmotherdom," I just assumed I would be the one teaching, and helping her grow along the way. I figured I'd be the role model and, along with her parents, help show her the ropes. I thought that I would be the one who helped her learn to be a self-confident member of the human race. Boy was I wrong. Instead, from my almost one-year-old, sweet, adorable granddaughter, I have learned the secret of a stress-free life. I have learned how not to be self-conscious, while either naked or laughing to myself.

I have learned to just enjoy the exact moment I am in -- and if I'm having a blast, not to worry if I'm a little cold -- because the fun will outweigh the discomfort every, single time. Thank you dear, sweet granddaughter for showing me what I had forgotten so long ago. To laugh and smile and giggle and have a blast, even when my jeans are soaked and my newly blown dry hair is dripping wet. Thank you for reminding me that right here, right now, is where I want to be and what I want to be doing -- living this minute -- because this is where I am supposed to be, even if it's a little bit soggy
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