I hadn’t planned to take such a long summer hiatus, yet somehow the summer came and went, then we were into Fall, and now here I am again. My challenge is that when I let go of one thing in my life, something else happily fills the space created. Sometimes it feels overwhelming, but mostly I am very grateful to have so many ways to find joy each day.
This summer, as Ben and I were driving along one day, he excitedly called out a very familiar phrase to me, “Gramma!! Look!!!! Fast!!! Out your window!” This little series of exclamations is most often followed by me trying to stay in my lane while I look all over the highway for what exciting vehicle has caught his eye.
Ben LOVES vehicles. I’ve learned the names and makes of more vehicles in the past few years than I ever even knew were in existence. He can accurately name almost any vehicle, and most often knows interesting facts about them. Alas, he thinks I have the same retaining power as he does, and I am frequently quizzed about things he has shared with me. I do know that the most popular police vehicle has been the Crown Victoria. However, I failed miserably on his quiz, consisting of me identifying vehicles, in the dark, by only looking at their bumpers. He was the quizzer, and I was the game-player and when I’d make a poor guess he’d exclaim, ‘Incorrect!’ and proceed to help me further my stockpile of car information.
Ben loves cars so much he cannot wait for us to make good on our promise to take him to a junkyard so he can see all the kinds of cars there.
On that day in the car, driving with him, I wasn’t completely sure what he was hoping I’d see when I was to look out my window, fast! When I asked him, he said, ‘Did you see it?! It was a decommissioned taxi!!’ Once I got my head around the fact he knew what decommissioned was, I said that I hadn’t noticed that it had been a taxi. He said, ‘You have to look closely. They’ve taken off the signs and painted over it, but if you look very closely at it, you can still see the faint outline of the words’
He continued, ‘It’s like a fingerprint, Gramma. It is special for that car and it will always be a part of it. It can’t fully be taken away.’
I might have failed at the identifying portion of our trip, but I was certainly struck by the wisdom of one little car crazy boy. I’ve had his little voice and those word rattling around inside my head for over a month now.
Jim and I notice fingerprints in all sorts of places in our home these days. My office doubles as a jail for our game of Good Guy, Bad Guy, and with its glass doors, not many weeks go by without little fingers finding their way to it. It’s the same with other places in our home. It’s not easy for two little grandjoys to visit a home without leaving their mark. There was a time I’d have wiped these up quickly. I might have even become frustrated with them.
Not anymore.
I now treasure these little fingerprints. I’ve also started to recognize and appreciate all the other ‘fingerprints’ people have left in my life, the fingerprints that can’t ever be taken away. I have the fingerprints of my siblings, the people who have known me forever. I have fingerprints from my cousins, who imprinted on me some of my most treasured memories. I have fingerprints of cherished friends, some who knew me when, and some who have more recently become a priceless part of my life. I have fingerprints from adventures I’ve experienced, and from unspectacular daily interactions. I have fingerprints from conversations and comments made in passing. I also have my share of smudgy fingerprints, the ones that aren’t so pretty, that I could have done without. But they too contain some wisdom and I’m trying to be thankful for even those ones.
This weekend is Thanksgiving. It’s one of my favourite holidays of the year. I love being with our family and taking time to think about all I have to be thankful for. As we get together this weekend, I have a feeling there will be fingerprints left everywhere. Perhaps not so much on the windows at Greg and Cara’s where we’ll celebrate together, but in so many other places.
Cara and Greg will leave their fingerprints of love on the delicious food we are already looking forward to. Fingerprints will be left in the conversations we will have with one another as we catch up with some of the details of our lives. In our family we have a wonderful habit of supporting one another in our activities, in our professional lives, in our dreams and in our challenges. We will leave fingerprints on each other as we do this. We will leave fingerprints with our laughter. We will leave fingerprints on the Ben and Andy as we finish our meal with a rousing game of Thanksgiving Bingo, complete with the silly little trinkets Jim finds to use a prizes (although it will be hard to outdo the glow in the dark vampire teeth found last year).
We all leave fingerprints wherever we go. This weekend, may we notice them, may we make choices about which kind we will leave, and may we not be too quick to wipe away the ones others are trying to leave on us.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Elizabeth is a certified professional Leadership Coach, and the owner of Critchley Coaching. She is the founder and president of the Canadian charity, RDL Building Hope Society. She works with corporations, non-profits and the public sector, providing leadership coaching. She creates and facilitates custom workshops for all sizes of groups and has expertise in facilitating Strategic Plans for organizations. Contact Elizabeth to learn to love fingerprints.
This summer, as Ben and I were driving along one day, he excitedly called out a very familiar phrase to me, “Gramma!! Look!!!! Fast!!! Out your window!” This little series of exclamations is most often followed by me trying to stay in my lane while I look all over the highway for what exciting vehicle has caught his eye.
Ben LOVES vehicles. I’ve learned the names and makes of more vehicles in the past few years than I ever even knew were in existence. He can accurately name almost any vehicle, and most often knows interesting facts about them. Alas, he thinks I have the same retaining power as he does, and I am frequently quizzed about things he has shared with me. I do know that the most popular police vehicle has been the Crown Victoria. However, I failed miserably on his quiz, consisting of me identifying vehicles, in the dark, by only looking at their bumpers. He was the quizzer, and I was the game-player and when I’d make a poor guess he’d exclaim, ‘Incorrect!’ and proceed to help me further my stockpile of car information.
Ben loves cars so much he cannot wait for us to make good on our promise to take him to a junkyard so he can see all the kinds of cars there.
On that day in the car, driving with him, I wasn’t completely sure what he was hoping I’d see when I was to look out my window, fast! When I asked him, he said, ‘Did you see it?! It was a decommissioned taxi!!’ Once I got my head around the fact he knew what decommissioned was, I said that I hadn’t noticed that it had been a taxi. He said, ‘You have to look closely. They’ve taken off the signs and painted over it, but if you look very closely at it, you can still see the faint outline of the words’
He continued, ‘It’s like a fingerprint, Gramma. It is special for that car and it will always be a part of it. It can’t fully be taken away.’
I might have failed at the identifying portion of our trip, but I was certainly struck by the wisdom of one little car crazy boy. I’ve had his little voice and those word rattling around inside my head for over a month now.
Jim and I notice fingerprints in all sorts of places in our home these days. My office doubles as a jail for our game of Good Guy, Bad Guy, and with its glass doors, not many weeks go by without little fingers finding their way to it. It’s the same with other places in our home. It’s not easy for two little grandjoys to visit a home without leaving their mark. There was a time I’d have wiped these up quickly. I might have even become frustrated with them.
Not anymore.
I now treasure these little fingerprints. I’ve also started to recognize and appreciate all the other ‘fingerprints’ people have left in my life, the fingerprints that can’t ever be taken away. I have the fingerprints of my siblings, the people who have known me forever. I have fingerprints from my cousins, who imprinted on me some of my most treasured memories. I have fingerprints of cherished friends, some who knew me when, and some who have more recently become a priceless part of my life. I have fingerprints from adventures I’ve experienced, and from unspectacular daily interactions. I have fingerprints from conversations and comments made in passing. I also have my share of smudgy fingerprints, the ones that aren’t so pretty, that I could have done without. But they too contain some wisdom and I’m trying to be thankful for even those ones.
This weekend is Thanksgiving. It’s one of my favourite holidays of the year. I love being with our family and taking time to think about all I have to be thankful for. As we get together this weekend, I have a feeling there will be fingerprints left everywhere. Perhaps not so much on the windows at Greg and Cara’s where we’ll celebrate together, but in so many other places.
Cara and Greg will leave their fingerprints of love on the delicious food we are already looking forward to. Fingerprints will be left in the conversations we will have with one another as we catch up with some of the details of our lives. In our family we have a wonderful habit of supporting one another in our activities, in our professional lives, in our dreams and in our challenges. We will leave fingerprints on each other as we do this. We will leave fingerprints with our laughter. We will leave fingerprints on the Ben and Andy as we finish our meal with a rousing game of Thanksgiving Bingo, complete with the silly little trinkets Jim finds to use a prizes (although it will be hard to outdo the glow in the dark vampire teeth found last year).
We all leave fingerprints wherever we go. This weekend, may we notice them, may we make choices about which kind we will leave, and may we not be too quick to wipe away the ones others are trying to leave on us.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Elizabeth is a certified professional Leadership Coach, and the owner of Critchley Coaching. She is the founder and president of the Canadian charity, RDL Building Hope Society. She works with corporations, non-profits and the public sector, providing leadership coaching. She creates and facilitates custom workshops for all sizes of groups and has expertise in facilitating Strategic Plans for organizations. Contact Elizabeth to learn to love fingerprints.
RSS Feed