I went home for a day to see my relatives visiting from North Carolina. I'm not very big on my family. I love them but I don't really like hanging out with all the relatives. Don't get me wrong it's nice seeing them and know that everything is going well but I'm not crazy about doing stuff with them. I've limited patience with them and only enjoy hanging out with them for a short period of time. There isn't anything that has happened or that they've done for me to feel this way. Completely opposite, I love hanging out with my friends and could do it all day long and have lots of patience with them. In a sense, my friends are more my family, feel more like my family, than my actual blood family is.
My little cousin is 3 and she has downs syndrome. I had only seen her twice before and she was too young to remember me (and I kind of avoided her because she was a baby and I usually make them cry) so her being wary of me was totally understandable. At one point, I pulled out my guitar and she came over. She was totally fascinated by it. It took a bit of coaxing for her to touch the strings but once she realized that she could make the strings sing....there was no putting the guitar away! She couldn't get enough of it! That moment of fingering chords as she brushed the strings with her hand to make music is undeniably one of my most precious memories that I will carry with me forever. I didn't want to put my guitar away. I didn't want that moment to end. That was the fist time with my family where I was completely and utterly happy and content with where I was and in what I was doing. I think that was the first time where there was absolutely nothing that I would rather do other than being there. She was so beautiful. Her face consumed with the joy and excitement at discovering something new. THAT is what childlike beauty and wonder is and I did something to cause that expression on her face. I want to be a part of that. I want to do that more often, not just with her but with other people too. If I could introduce people to something that fills them with joy and wonder....what a wonderful life that could be. This is what I want to do with my life. I want to travel and get to know people and share God. The joy and wonder He brings me each and every day in the simplest and silliest things.....if I could share that, if I could show people that....What a beautiful thing that would be.
