Opinion : Reading my mind: Wonder

Sometimes you need a reminder to stop and take a look around you. Take in the scenery. The other day I had my two-year-old granddaughter strapped into the backseat of the car. As I pulled up to a stop here in Vinton I heard, "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" The inflection in her voice told me that whatever it was, to her, it was awesome. I sat there looking around and tried to figure out what had grabbed her attention. I couldn't find it. There didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary.

"What do you see?" I replied.

"There's a stop sign!" she said excitedly.

As we continued on our trip, she noticed the numbers and letters on the different signs we passed. I love it. Teaching her the ABCs and numbers was something her mom and I had been working on so it was a matter of time.

We had to travel to a different town and as we pulled into town she noticed all of the signs and billboards. "Grammy! Look at all of the signs! There are so many of them! There's blue and yellow and green and red...!" The fascination of these signs containing the ABCs and the numbers as well as every color that she knows just could not be contained. "There's a BURGER too! I'm hungry, can we get a burger? My dolly is hungry!" Well, of COURSE, we can get a burger. Does a grandma say, "no"?

So we grabbed a burger. If you give a granddaughter a burger, she's going to say, "Grammy, I think you forgot something." Thinking that she wanted fries I said, "What did I forget?"

"I don't see a toy," she said. That's my fault, usually, I spring for the toy, but this time I didn't. As she settled in with her water and burger, she chattered away to one of her three dollies in the back seat. 

I know these days of her being in my rearview mirror are going to be less and less. These times that we get to share on our car rides together and her being blown away by whatever it is that she's noticing now will be gone in a blink.

I thought of her today as I sat at the train tracks watching the train go by. One of the cars went by with some pretty amazing art on it. I immediately thought of the little voice in the back seat saying, 'Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

It's a small thing I suppose, but I was enjoying my latest flavor of ice cream from the A&W which happens to be blackberry. As I watched the train pass, I wished that I had that little girl in back to show the artwork to. Then I looked at my cone. It was a really pretty purple. I wondered which thing she would be most amazed by. Probably the ice cream.

So anyway, take a minute to enjoy the little things around you. The smell of cookies out of the oven, or if you're like me who never cooks, the smell of the air after it rains.

If you're two, be amazed by the things the older people ignore, like the stop sign.

If you're older, note the stop sign, especially if the cops are behind you!