What's important?

Sylvan's Request

"Will you color with me?" asked Sylvan.

"Not right now, I'm going to go do..."

something important.

I went to do something I needed to do, didn't I?

Oh no.

What a glorious invitation I passed on today.

I could have colored!

I never color anymore.

I saw I wasn't good at coloring, so I stopped.

Growing up is dangerous like that.

It's so easy to forget that playing isn't competing,

so easy to confuse the serious with the important

or the skillful with the valuable.

Sylvan wanted to color while Leo played in a cardboard box

and Violette carefully balanced a pillow on her head.

How silly they are.

How wonderfully, worshipfully, beautifully silly!

But me?

Well, I had to do something important.

~Nathan Bubna

I almost passed on an opportunity to play ping pong with a kid while volunteering on Monday night. I had already played ping pong with this kid and he left the family center for what I thought was the night. I picked up a book and started reading and then he showed up again about fifteen minutes later wanted to play again. I said, "I'm going to read for a bit." Then I took a look across the room at the kid having to sit there and watch the kids on the ddr. I felt bad and decided to take him up on the game. I kicked his butt!

Kids are worth putting time into. Sometimes we may think we have better things to do. More often than not that may even be true. But when we consider the privilege of being invited while they are still interested in playing with us...that's priceless.