After owning the movie Frozen for only a week, Chloe, the youngest of my ten grandchildren, had watched it so often, she could quote lines from the movie verbatim. For weeks before that, (even before I knew there was a movie called Frozen), she was running through the house singing “Let it Go” at the top of her lungs. What does a five-year-old know about letting go? I wondered as she breezed past me one day on her way from the kitchen to the living room.
Which reminds me. When Chloe returned from her first day of preschool two years ago - and while we were coloring adjacent pages in her coloring book - I decided to ask her how her day was. (Is there some kind of secret oath that students take that makes them all say "good" whenever they are asked that question by their elders, and despite the crayons, I am her elder)?
Chloe didn't disappoint. "Good," she said. I decided to try harder. "But what did you learn?" After holding her breath for a moment, she looked up. "I love Antarctica," she said in a way I could tell came straight from her heart.
"You do?" I said, so surprised my voice rose an octave or two. "Why?"
"Because it has penguins - and Eskimos and lots of snow," she answered. (That, of course, was before last winter.) I marveled at her innocence.
Now, as the school year is about to end and Chloe is about to graduate from pre-school, she still loves singing "Let it Go" at the top of her lungs and I am still wondering what she could possibly know about letting go. At least I felt that way until a few moments ago when, after sitting in my room alone - giving a clown purple hair, Chloe rushed in, gave me a hug, and told me she loved me. It was then that I turned to my computer and found these words posted on my Facebook page: "Innocence is the ability to give and receive love without holding on."
Which reminds me. When Chloe returned from her first day of preschool two years ago - and while we were coloring adjacent pages in her coloring book - I decided to ask her how her day was. (Is there some kind of secret oath that students take that makes them all say "good" whenever they are asked that question by their elders, and despite the crayons, I am her elder)?
Chloe didn't disappoint. "Good," she said. I decided to try harder. "But what did you learn?" After holding her breath for a moment, she looked up. "I love Antarctica," she said in a way I could tell came straight from her heart.
"You do?" I said, so surprised my voice rose an octave or two. "Why?"
"Because it has penguins - and Eskimos and lots of snow," she answered. (That, of course, was before last winter.) I marveled at her innocence.
Now, as the school year is about to end and Chloe is about to graduate from pre-school, she still loves singing "Let it Go" at the top of her lungs and I am still wondering what she could possibly know about letting go. At least I felt that way until a few moments ago when, after sitting in my room alone - giving a clown purple hair, Chloe rushed in, gave me a hug, and told me she loved me. It was then that I turned to my computer and found these words posted on my Facebook page: "Innocence is the ability to give and receive love without holding on."
My memoir, Dear Elvis, is available at amzn.to/2uPSFtE
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