edwinleap.com

If you want to make other adults smile, act like a child.  Today, flying between Dallas/Ft. Worth and Greenville, SC, I played with my eight-year-old daughter Elysa in the tight confines of a commuter plane.  While her mother and two of her brothers were in the rear of the plane, and her other brother slept across the aisle from me, Elysa and I played with two dolls that she had wisely packed in her carry-on.

The dolls met, talked, danced, sang songs, learned cheerleading routines (well, sort of), and generally had a blast.  They even used my hat for a boat, floating serenely above the clouds.

At one point, we played a cramped, fast-paced game of ‘Miss Mary Mack.’  You know, ‘Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack, all dressed in black, black, black…’ to the appropriate hand motions, complex enough to stave off my dementia for a little longer.

I saw other passengers smiling.  I was smiling.  And most important of all, my princess was smiling.

I could have been reading, writing, sleeping or staring pensively out the window, worrying about things thousands of feet below, and infinitely out of my control.

I think I chose the wiser path.  Our children are God’s gifts to us.  They keep us young, they make us smile, they lean on us and derive their worth from us day in and day out, year after year.  And they know that they are valuable when we take the time to simply play, as if we were ourselves crazed little kids.

It was a wonderful flight.  I am a blessed man.
Edwin