Have you ever put off a bad job? Or just delayed it as long as you could? Or maybe you’ve even put off something you wanted to do far too long. I know I have.
As the old adage tells us—“Out of the mouths of babes. . .” Well, our youngest granddaughter, Kylie, was just that babe for me a few years ago.
This beautiful child was born with a smile on her face and earned her family name “Smiley Kylie” before she could talk or walk. Well, she was with us for an afternoon, and it was snack time. That girl had a penchant for chocolate and still does, but I enticed her with peanut butter and apple slices.
She joined me in the kitchen, and she eyed the candy jar with the Dove chocolates on the counter. I said “Yes, but just one,” before she asked. She joined me at the sink while I peeled the apple. We stood in front of the open garbage compactor, and Kylie was quite intrigued with the way the apple peeling fell into the compacted trash. She kept asking me to hurry. I thought she was hungry. Not so—she was anxious to twist the knob on the compactor and watch it do its magic.
Meanwhile, I was almost finished peeling the apple when the splat on the white tile floor beside the open compactor caught my eye. If there was one spot on that four-hundred- square feet of white tile, that is where my eye zoomed. I could find the spot like Kylie finds chocolate. (You may remember I wrote about the curse of that tile floor last week.)
Our Smilie Kylie
Kylie was delighted about a Dove chocolate, and apple peelings and compactor knobs, but I was just flat-out annoyed. I put the knife down and said, “Kylie, would you look at that nasty floor?” She glanced down at the white tile, then looked up at me without blinking and said, “Nana, stop talking about it and just mop it.”
She turned the knob, and as the compactor ground away at apple peelings and who knows what else, I stood baffled, trying to figure out how my five-year-old granddaughter got so smart. The economy of her words had the impact of a carefully-crafted, power-packed poem.
She dipped her apple in the peanut butter while I pondered. I almost missed the delight of my granddaughter because I was looking at a spot on the floor. And why would I waste my time and hers complaining about it? Translated Kylie-speak, if you have something that needs doing or something you want to do, somewhere you want to go, or someone you want to see, quit talking about it, and just do it! And by all means, quit spending your time looking at nasty floors.
