The First of Many Lessons That Must be Recorded

I have learned a number of lessons and gained some powerful insight over the past few weeks, with the opportunity to connect with family on both sides. I am so lucky. I am sorry for all of the rest of you but I am blessed to have the greatest cousins and aunts and uncles in the whole world. I am so taken care of and protected and I cannot express my gratitude. I plan to record all or most of the things that I have learned over the coming days, but tonight I really need to record something so sweet that occured today. Mom and I stopped in Kemmerer because they have an Artic Circle there and we LOVE that place. Fry sauce and Lime Rickey's are my friend. Anyway...as we sat there eating, we started watching a little boy who was there hanging out with his papa while his mom was working behind the counter. He was about 18 months old and he was not cute in a conventional way but was adorable once I started really watching him. It only took me a few moments of watching to realize that he was above average in intelligence and he was really crafty. I love that in kids. The play area where he was hanging out with his dad was an addition and had different tile than the actual restaurant. His dad made it very clear to him that he was not to pass the line made by the differing tiles. He was flirting with me and wanted to go past that line in the worst way. I was trying so hard not to be a temptation, but he was so dang cute. He would watch his dad and then he would approach the line and the would take his toes right up to the edge and then he would lean his body as far as he could over the line, just to see what Dad would do. I was totally cracking up. He would hold this stance for a moment and then he would give up and turn around and run around the play area and act like he did not care at all about that line. But I knew that he was still plotting, you could see it in his face and I know kids. He approached the line over and over and did the same thing, but he never actually stepped even a toe across that line. I was also watching his dad and I could see his dad becoming more and more relaxed as this game went on, secure in the knowledge that his boy understood the boundaries. Then it happened. He turned away from the line and started running around the play area, came back to the line in what appeared to be the same game, but he did not stop at the line, he just kept running and I am telling you, he was running with all that he had in his little self and he was fast! It took his now relaxed father a moment to realize what had just occured but he was soon in pursuit of the cunning little runaway and snatched him up. I was about under my table with glee. It was great. The kid did not even cry when his dad scooped him up. He just gave his dad a long, hard look and I could see that he was already plotting his next escape. It was such a great moment, I loved it. But then I got in the car and I began to think and what I recognize as the spirit began to work on helping me think and I realized that I was loving that performance because that was totally looking in the mirror. I am absolutely that little boy. Time and time and time again, I take my toes up to the line and I lean my body over that line and sometimes I almost fall with seeing how far I can go without actually crossing the ilne. And I am so prideful that I think that I am fooling my Father. I think that I can lull Him into complacency about me and when I get just prideful enough to believe that He is not looking, I make a run for it. I have even thought I got away with it more times than I care to admit. But I never really get away with anything. Something always comes along to scoop me up and put me back within my boundaries. Sometimes I throw a tantrum about this, but not often, I am not really a tantrum kind of person. Usually, I am like my little toddler friend and I just immediatly begin plotting my next move. Will I ever learn? I don't know. I have a lot of good people who I love and who profess to love me who are in place and giving me swift kicks in the butt on a regular basis, so perhaps there is hope. We shall see. In the meantime, I am so full of gratitude for an insane amount of blessings that are mine in my extended family. It is almost embarrassing, but I am not ashamed enough to give any of them up. They are mine and again I apologize to the rest of you who must settle for second best. Thanks for listening, keep yer stick on the ice.