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March 14, 2004

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As we travel through this lifetime and we meet people that shape us, we learn and we grow. 

But we still can't help the occasional reflection on our past. We look back to a time where things were so much more simple. Where we didn't have to worry about the rent, that was somebody else's responsibility. We didn't worry about what or when to eat. It was just there. But as simple as things were for us, we still were so much more advanced than we ever thought. We could calculate circumstances and how our actions could control our destinies. We learned so fast. Within the first six years we learn more than we realized, and we took it for granted. 

We learned to walk, and to talk and speak a complete language.  We learned how to feed and clothe ourselves. We learned how to control complex devices like radios, TV's, bicycles, telephones, and so many other various components. The list is endless. 

The mind of a child can learn and contain so much more than we often realize. 

I recall a circumstance, at about the same age as I was in this picture. I had been punished and forced to stay in a corner. I still, to this day, don't recall what I had done. But while in that corner, I found two bobbie-pins stuck in the baseboard. I attached them together in a criss-cross fashion to create a small airplane shape. With this new toy at my disposal I proceeded to play. Finding out that the endeavors of her punishment was not affecting me what-so-ever, totally frustrated my mother.

Later, at another time, I was, again placed into a corner for punishment. After a few moments, my sister came to me and held out her hand, which contained two bobbie-pins, which I refused to accept.

That memory will never be forgotten. It reminds me day to day how caring people can and should be. The fact that my sister cared enough for me to risk punishment herself. And how I cared by refusing her offer, so that she would not be punished as well.

Don't ever underestimate the mind of a child and what they can actually comprehend. Sometimes it takes a simple mind to see the obvious that we so often overlook, or to even be able to ascertain the complexities we sometimes cannot understand.