Words for Adalyn Grace

~ an Adalyn Grace essay ~

written by

Jeannette Zink

My near perfection great-niece, Adalyn Grace, is beginning to build quite the portfolio of essential words to communicate her needs, wants, and desires.  On January 4, 2016, Miss Adalyn found herself dancing on the trampoline of 400 words ready to spring into service.  She was also rejecting the suggestions of her incredibly patient and gifted mother with the respectful learned words, “No, thank you.” Allow me to set the context of these amazing feats … Adalyn Grace is nineteen-months-old and absolutely brilliant … just this morning, Adalyn was found relaxing on her favorite sofa enjoying the light reading of a Star Wars book.  I rest my case and subjective judgment of Adalyn Grace’s brilliance!

I am sorry to report that by the time I was the age of Adalyn I had only managed to figure out how to insert a hair pin into a light socket.  Needless to say, my skills did not receive the same accolades as that of Adalyn’s verbal dexterity.  Instead, the radius of the neighbor geography was greeted with waves of darkness and reset fuse buttons were searched for high and low.  I am fairly certain that the nice people in the community expressed plenty of well-chosen descriptive words found inhabiting their lexicon of exasperation.

As I complete this sentence, I suspect Adalyn Grace will have acquired at least twenty new words and assembled them in her treasure chest of tomorrow’s narrative.  Her words, acting as objects for a future collage, wait in reserve for the day when needed for a praised sentence.   That day will come in the not too distant future, and will be met with applaud and delight that another milestone has so quickly been achieved with the help and love of an unwavering support team … loving parents, grandparents, family and friends.

It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words.  Adalyn Grace, you are well on your way to the 1,000 mark of worthy speech collectibles.  Here are two words that I hope will be a part of your vocabulary playlist for a lifetime… HAPPY and JOY.

  

Enjoy the journey, precious and brilliant, Adalyn Grace.

Making space for a little Kindness

written by

Jeannette Zink

There are stages in our lives when we are profoundly confident in ourselves.  We surrender our qualms and set them aside with a self-assured glance.   Our wishes tossed to the heavens and easily lasso with the blink of a star.  Dreams caught with the whisper of a butterfly’s wings. These are the magical times when we are at our best.  We know who we are intended to be and our intended purpose.  It is the pleasant intersection of timing when the moon and sun join hands and dance a delightful jig in the glow of rainbow questions and starlight answers.  Life is good and there is no stopping the mystical karma … climb, climb as fast as you can to the top of your dreams … your time is now!

This learning journey to finding our best self was not an easy one.  There were surely twists and turns on our adventure when the gods of the universe turned a deft ear to our pleas for alternative paths.  We demanded answers for our prized dilemmas … answers with a due date of yesteryear.  At first, the wait was not pleasant.  We put up a great fight for our self-imposed timeline was imminent.  The struggle one-sided as we fought within ourselves for the things we deemed vital for our existence. 

Then one day we stopped to breathe; we brought down our fists of fear; and, we paused for a clear look at the space we had frivolously occupied.  The space we had not given a second thought of respect for the unassuming legroom of comfort.  After all, a sliver of the cosmos was owed to us by the sheer fact that we existed.  Our arrogant demands to be tolerated … we had places to go, things to do, people to see.

 

Our proclaimed space, reluctantly forgiving the whims of our less than evolved self, suddenly assumed an enchanting kaleidoscope of compassion that only our better self could have ever seen or appreciated.  The people in our sphere became kinder, or was it us who became kinder; love for one another a way of life; and, the space we occupied was more generous to the needs of others than that of our own. 

Kindness and love are powerful gifts and can take up a lot of space, if we just let them.  The space in my world has certainly grown once I let these welcomed gifts into my life. 

Blessings and love to all … may your space in life be enlarged and shared by these powerful gifts.

You may enjoy visiting my blogs:

http://jeannettesartandstories.blogspot.com/

http://doodlngwithwordsbyjeannette.blogspot.com/

Courage is a place where Happiness finds its Heroes

written by

Jeannette Zink

The other morning I was channel cruising on my non-SMART, non-HD and non-4K television.  I stumbled upon the tail end of a children’s program on WETA/PBS.  My channel changing finger was all set to click to the next venue of choice when I heard these words of wisdom spoken from T. rex on the Dinosaur Train … “When I found my courage, I became happy.”  I could barely move from my human tracks and fingers were frozen in mid-air of a click.  What had just happened – a lifetime of searching for happiness – finally declared and definitively described from the mouth of a whimsically charming dinosaur!

What do you know about happiness and courage, Mr. Dinosaur Train conductor … you are just a figment of imagination created inside the minds of a creative animation team and writers for a children’s program.  Why should I take a made-up dinosaur to heart in my never-ending pursuit of happiness?  Really, has it come to this, Jeannette … taking advice from a dinosaur! 

So, I shrug and strut around with a huff and puff swagger reasoning that this is nothing more than a silly kid’s television program far beneath my intellectual competency.  Let’s just see what the experts have to say about courage and happiness.  I turned to the twenty-first century e-book of knowledge, GOOGLE, to fact check this little smarty pants of a dinosaur.  Well, the internet indeed is a wealth of information, even on philosophical, emotional and psychological topics as the thesis of courage and happiness.  While my research only scratched the surface of this hypothesis that courage and happiness may be linked to a life of bliss, I am leaning toward the side of the Mr. Dinosaur Train conductor.  That’s right, my friends, dinosaurs may have been the first philosophers to roam the happy trails of earth.  They were certainly courageous as they fought the good fight to stay alive, while perhaps much less worried about finding their true state of happiness.

I will admit that in watching the recent movie, Jurassic World, I did witness the occasional smile of courageous victory on the faces of the brave dinosaurs as they scrambled to safety and/or were in hot pursuit of the genetically modified dinosaur, Indominus rex.  One could even see a bit of a wink in the eye of the friendly Blue dinosaur as a show of courage to protect the alpha hunk Chris Pratt and the fellow cast of characters.

Moving from the days of dinosaurs to the world of great American novelists and short story writers … I quote Nathaniel Hawthorne:  Happiness is not found in things you possess, but in what you have the courage to release.

No matter the source of our garnered wisdom – dinosaurs, philosophers, or novelists – we will know it when we see it/hear it/feel it with our hearts and accept as a way of life …  be brave, be strong, and be courageous … these are our stepping stones to everlasting happiness.

I leave you with one of my favorite all time biblical quotes:  Jeremiah 29:11

  

‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and hope….  

Enjoy your courageous journey, my kindred spirits, there is a smiley face waiting at the release of each fear and doubt.  Courage is a place where happiness finds its hero in each of us.

      

You may enjoy visiting my blogs:

http://jeannettesartandstories.blogspot.com/

http://doodlngwithwordsbyjeannette.blogspot.com/

Cookie Prayers … in due respect

~ an Adalyn Grace essay ~

written by

Jeannette Zink

January 1, 2016

My nineteen-month-old phenomenally terrific great-niece, Adalyn Grace, insists that her cookies receive a proper blessing before she will take so much as one morsel of a bite.  So, heads are bowed, hands are linked and prayers are offered in respect to the gracious God who has seen fit to provide today’s selection of savory cookies at the table of this most earnest child and her loving family. 

  

One may expect that there be only one prayer voiced for the entire spread of the cookie platter.  However, one would be underestimating this child’s intention to pay homage to our dear Lord of all things great and small.  Thus, each cookie is blessed before the sugary delectable may be consumed by the parents and grandparents of this extraordinary and … I am just going to say it … brilliant child.

On the surface, this gesture of blessing the revered cookies may appear to be nothing more than a really cute emulation of “like mommy and daddy so goes the child” minute.  But, then my mind begins to meander through the fields of “but wait a minute” where I find myself in a land of “wake-up calls.” It is at this precise intersection of pause and reflection that I have a V-8 moment, and take respectful note of this beautiful child’s unassuming grace and loving spirit.  A clarion chime is heard and an understanding of the importance in thanking God for the trivial gifts that make our lives just a little more sweetly bearable … like Adalyn Grace’s sacred cookies … is chiseled into my conscious.  Thank you, Adalyn Grace, for putting life in perspective – you are the mentor to lead us in conducting our life as God intended.

Today just happens to be the start of a brand new clean canvas of a New Year.  A whole new plate of cookies await our consumption, but only after we take an Adalyn Grace moment to say our sincere prayers in due respect for this delicious life of God’s grace and shining light of love.

Blessings and Happy New Year … my dear family, friends and kindred spirits!!!