Wishes

The spring before Kaede turned 3 she woke me up with an excited level of about 9 on a 0-10 scale. She drug me out to look out the window at our yard.

I looked out and sighed. So many weeds, so little grass in our lawn, so many dandelions gone to seed after I'd tried to kill them last fall. The excitement from not yet 3 year old Kaede pulled me out of sulking. "We are the luckiest people in the world Mom, just look!"  I looked and couldn't see anything to be particularly excited about much less anything from behind the old drafty window at a yard that needed a complete overhaul. The sparkle in Kaede's eye and the excitement seeping out of everywhere made me look again. 

Weeds, dead lawn, old porch, dirty window and no clue what had Kaede so excited. She took me by the hand to the yard and Vanna White style she pointed at  the lawn and said "Look !"  Our yard is full of wishes!  We are so lucky Mom. 

Kaede still calls dandelions that have gone to seed "wishes" and her perspective on life, Hard Things, and weeds is what I kept thinking about during this last conference when they discussed being grateful. It's not a list she writes or a cute meme posted to Facebook it's just in every part of her and how she lives her life. I hope she never looses that part of her. She has seen more than her fair share of hard things and still manages to be smiling from her soul with gratitude.