Just A Short Trip

A thirteen-year-old girl said to her mother, “I feel so nervous.” Her mother replied, “What do you mean, ‘nervous’?” “Well,” said the child, “I feel in a hurry all over. It’s like I’m not sure quite where I’m going, but I can’t wait to get started.”

Another little girl–a fifth-grader–kept doing mischievous things in class, in the halls, and out in the playground. Sometimes she was caught and reprimanded, sometimes not. But the time came when she’d been caught so much that she was sent to the principal’s office. She sat there and smiled as the principal recited her misdeeds, then said, “Janice, do you have any idea why you behave this way?” Janice pondered the question for a moment, then replied, “I like to take the risk.”

Whether one is seventy or seventeen or seven, there is in every human heart a great reservoir of child-like awe and wonder, of child-like zest for “What’s next?”, of child-like hope for the transformation of…