Enjoy Your Surprises Today
I came across this photo several weeks ago on the Library of Congress website. Around 1946, photographer C. M. Stieglitz took this picture of cartoonist Roberta MacDonald drawing while her 15-month-old daughter, Patricia, watched her. MacDonald was a cartoonist for The New Yorker.
During March Ray and I enjoyed visits with each set of our grandchildren who live out of town. While visiting our daughter’s family, I had happy times sitting at the table with our eight-year-old granddaughter while we both drew. I wasn’t teaching her. I was simply sitting with her while we both did what we both enjoy doing—drawing.
Sometimes we drew from our imaginations and sometimes from what we were seeing during our visit. For example, one day when I was helping out around the house, I needed to move a vase of fresh flowers off the kitchen table. I placed it on an empty wall shelf. Soon our granddaughter was drawing the shelf with the vase of flowers.
One morning both granddaughters were playing with their marble run on their bedroom floor. I later drew a picture of a marble run on a floor. I drew a picture frame on my imaginary room’s empty wall space. Soon both granddaughters were making suggestions on what should go in the frame. As you can see, they thought I should keep drawing smaller and smaller versions of my original marble run. I loved the collaboration, and I cherish my special memento that reminds me of those priceless moments.
The next week we visited our son’s family. During that visit, I drew with our eight-year-old grandson. We drew together on their dining room table and also while we were visiting the St. Louis Art Museum. I carried sketch pads into the galleries and encouraged him to choose a painting to copy. He chose a giant painting of the sea with the Titanic in the background and lifeboats filled with people. I would have been more at home with one of the magnificent impressionist paintings, so I simply sat beside our grandson and drew him drawing the scene of the Titanic. It was a surprisingly similar experience. I made him the focus of my drawing and began only a small representation of the painting he was copying. However, he wanted me to put in the details he was seeing in the large painting on the wall and talked me through how I should draw a small Titanic and miniature lifeboats with tiny people. Of course, I did what he suggested.
When we experience life with children, it is filled with special surprises. Enjoy your surprises today.
Behold, children are a gift of the Lord . . .
Psalm 127:3