I.
So little she-who-is came to work with me this morning--she seems to feel OK, just a little puny with a low-level fever. So I brought in a couple of videos that she watched while I had a meeting or two.

We walked in first thing this morning and ran into the preschool director. Mrs. S greeted her and C responded, "I can't go to preschool today because I have a fever, so I'm going to hang out in Mommy's office."

She speaks so precisely. It was the "hang out" that cracked us up.


II.
I have a small vial of oil that I use in services for wholeness and healing, and it is fascinating to her. I tell her that we use the oil to make a cross on people's foreheads when they're sick and it reminds them that God loves them. I've even anointed her before just to show her what it's like.

Today I said, "C, if you want I'll put a little oil on your head because this time you really are sick."

She responded, "That's OK Mommy, I'd rather just have some medicine."

My little rationalist.


III.
I have a large whiteboard next to my desk. Along the bottom I have taped various papers and important notes I don't want to lose track of. I let her draw on the whiteboard today, and she made a variety of squiggles and a "picture of Jesus". I didn't notice until later that she'd colored right over one of those notes. I was irritated at first until I looked closer and saw that it read:

When we're driven by agitation, consumed by fretting, we become immersed in our own agenda and it is always exaggerated. We get caught up in things that, in the final analysis, simply don't matter.
--Joan Chittister