Stop and smell the broccoli

Sometimes you need to stop and smell the roses.  Or sometimes, listen to your kids.  It can be great therapy.  Tonight at Giant Eagle, our local grocery store, I had Caleb (5) and Hannah (3) with me.  Hannah wanted to walk this time instead of riding in the cart.  Caleb pushed the cart.  He usually does.  Hannah said, “What is next?”  I said broccoli.  “Oh, good, I love broccoli.  Broccoli, broccoli, broccoli . . .”   Their cheerfulness could be heard half way across the store.  I didn’t mind tonight.  That place needed some cheering up.  Everything in life is exciting from their point of view.  With each new aisle we entered they joyfully announce the number.  “We’re in aisle 5!”  “We’re in aisle 7!”  It was just such a happy time for them to be walking through the grocery store and enjoying life.  Pointing to everything, “Are we out of this?”  “Are we out of that?”  Yes get one of those.  No, we don’t need that.  “Are we out of this?”   And on it went.  At times I wish I were five years old and completely oblivious to the world around me except that which I can see from our house.  What a different world it was back when I was five.  If I could go back to that time I would.  I would live more fully in the moment.  I would do more things.  I would push myself more and have more experiences.  I would make more friends.  I would hit my brother less; well, maybe.   And when I turned 16 I would have borrowed as much money as I could and invested in Microsoft.

PS  Once we got home, Hannah would not eat the broccoli.