Sandra Heska King

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Playing Scattergories

November 29, 2010 By Sandra Heska King

Crumbs still clung to the harvest cloth between blotted Coke and orange juice. The fake decorations drooped a little when yawns gathered around to begin the traditional games.

The eight-year-old asked to play Scattergories. The adults groaned knowing the difficulty she would have, fearing her frustration. But she persisted, and the adults relented.

She took charge of the alphabet die and the timer, and real memories began.

The adults struggled to think of a world leader or politician whose name started with the letter “O.”

The adults came up blank.

The eight-year-old scribbled “Obama.”

The leader of our own country.

The adults struggled to think of a capital that started with the letter “L.”

They smugly wrote down “Lima, Peru” and “London, England.”

The eight-year-old scribbled “Lansing.”

The capital of our own state.

The adults struggled to think of gifts that started with the letter “K.”

They wrote down things like “kitten” and “Kindle.”

The eight-year-old scribbled “kindness.”

Sometimes we adults try too hard and think too long. We search through our memory crumbs and try to blot up what we’ve soaked in. We look too far for what is so near. We miss the obvious and most important.

We adults need the eyes and ears and heart of an eight-year-old.

Linking with On, In, and Around Mondays at Seedlings in Stone.

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Filed Under: stories and reflections

Comments

  1. jasonS says

    November 29, 2010 at 12:20 pm

    What a very smart girl! We need kids in our lives to keep the important things front and center. Great post, Sandra. Thanks.

    • Sandra says

      November 29, 2010 at 1:00 pm

      Yes, she is. And funny, too!

  2. Michael says

    November 29, 2010 at 12:20 pm

    We can seriously learn so much from out kids. Or I can at least, Ethan has a way of simplifying things.

    • Sandra says

      November 29, 2010 at 1:00 pm

      Seriously learn. So true.

  3. Toni Birdsong says

    November 29, 2010 at 12:32 pm

    O = old. L = lady. K = who is Kind. It’s what I want to be when I grow up. Just wrote the first “childlike” thing that came to my mind. Trying to be childlike today… thanks for the reminder, Sandy!

    • Sandra says

      November 29, 2010 at 1:01 pm

      Wait. Are you calling me a kind old lady? 😉

  4. V.V. Denman says

    November 29, 2010 at 12:35 pm

    Not that I’m overly competitive or anything, but did the eight-year-old win the game? (I hope so.)

    • Sandra says

      November 29, 2010 at 12:58 pm

      Well, no, she didn’t. I didn’t even write down my scores, and I can’t remember who actually won. I do remember a lot of laughter and a lot of hushes because the babies were sleeping. 😉

      She has been known to skunk me on a 1-on-1 game of Uno.

  5. L.L. Barkat says

    November 29, 2010 at 12:54 pm

    Marvelous. When kids call us to play, we should answer. 🙂

    • Sandra says

      November 29, 2010 at 12:59 pm

      Yep. Never know what we might learn.

  6. Nancy says

    November 29, 2010 at 12:59 pm

    This is lovely–and now I know you’re from Michigan! Thanks so much for your kind words today over at my place. Nice to meet you. Blessings.

    • Sandra says

      November 29, 2010 at 1:05 pm

      Born and bred–though I’ve got a lot of places I’ve called second home. 🙂 Nice to meet you, too, Nancy.

  7. S. Etole says

    November 29, 2010 at 3:42 pm

    A smart child with a wise Gramma … I enjoy my grandson so much.

    • Sandra says

      November 29, 2010 at 4:39 pm

      Never dull. 🙂

  8. Terri Tffany says

    November 29, 2010 at 5:24 pm

    It sounds like it was a fun day! And yes, I enjoy watching life through the eyes of a child. Oh to be that age again:)

    • Sandra says

      November 29, 2010 at 9:28 pm

      I wish I could remember me at that age.

  9. Sheila Hollinghead says

    November 30, 2010 at 8:05 am

    Love reading about your granddaughter. She sounds like a sweetie.

    • Sandra says

      November 30, 2010 at 4:08 pm

      That she is!

  10. Karenee says

    November 30, 2010 at 11:01 am

    Lovely. This is what children do. I wonder why it’s so easy to think they won’t? I don’t think I will ever learn so much so quickly as I did when I was a child. It’s admirable.

    • Sandra says

      November 30, 2010 at 4:07 pm

      Maybe it’s because children don’t have so much stuff vying for their attention. Thanks so much for coming by, Karen.

  11. Duane Scott says

    November 30, 2010 at 1:54 pm

    Someday, I want to play scattegories against that 8 year old. I think I’d learn a thing or two. Love this story!

    • Sandra says

      November 30, 2010 at 3:56 pm

      She’s our Amazing Grace. 🙂

  12. Kim says

    December 1, 2010 at 12:05 pm

    Looking too far for what is so near…Thank you!

  13. Cheryl Smith says

    December 2, 2010 at 8:47 am

    I’ve had this tab open to read, but schedules have been crazy! Glad I persisted. We dusted off the scattergories game this weekend when friends were here, and have played it with the (older) kids twice since then. But now I’m encouraged that we can tackle this with our 10 year old. They’ll return from their mom’s house on Sunday. I’ll get it ready. Why don’t y’all join us?

    • Sandra says

      December 3, 2010 at 10:25 am

      I would love that! I can’t wait to hear how the 10-year-old does. 🙂

  14. Anne Lang Bundy says

    December 8, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    Snady, you remind me of how happy I really am, amid the squabbles & tattling & tears, to be a mommy who still measures two of my children’s ages in the single digits.

    My brain gets so filled with adult concerns. Last night you caught me wading through a fog, unable to process simple tasks like talking to a waitress. But your presence and stopping to take a photo and saying hello to my not-so-little little girl all brought me back to the place where the heart’s love overcame the mind’s fog. How much I needed it! (thank You Lord!)

    How precious in life are the moments we exchange with the young.

    Thank you for the gift of this post, to seal the gift of last night.

  15. Sandra says

    December 8, 2010 at 10:51 pm

    It was so much fun! I’m glad we live not so far apart and even closer in spirit. 🙂

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My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the str My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion.” Psalm 73:26 (ESV)
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He laughs. "I created a monster." Ummm, yeah.

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So he listens to the beating of my heart. Then he says, "Well, I don't think the valve is ripe yet. I don't expect you to have symptoms for three or four years. You don't need to come back for a year."

Wait! So you ask if I have symptoms. But you don't expect symptoms--yet. And when I do have symptoms, someone is gonna do something. And then I'll be older and maybe weaker. Or what if I have some sudden and silent symptom and boom! And now I have to worry about that. 

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