The Collector...

Sassy is a girl with many hobbies. She loves to play dress-up. She is an avid movie watcher. She likes to paint and color and cut things with scissors. She is great at many, many things.

But, there is one area in life where her greatest talents lie...

Collecting things.

Since she was very small, she has had a knack for grouping toys, meticulously separating the foods on her plate, eating all of one flavor fruit at a time... you get the gist.

When she was old enough, we allowed her to choose rocks from various locations to keep as a "memory". What started off as a few nice rocks from the beach suddenly became several minuscule pieces of gravel from some parking lot that she just had to have...

I try to choose my battles. Often, if she asks for a rock, I will say on the way out, hoping she may forget by that time. More often than not, her collection grows.

Her rock collection has evolved into small sets of other collections- acorns, nuts, beans, berries, dragon tears from the Renaissance Festival, coins, and so on. We have little snack-sized baggies lined up on our kitchen counter, filled with all of Sassy's treasures. It gets annoying having to push them aside every time I have to cook. I get disgusted and end up tossing the entire bag when I occasionally discover some berry beginning to grow mold...

But it's so endearing to watch her play with her collections. To hear her talk about them.

We were in the middle of a PAT visit last month, and I made reference to Sassy's stashing of small things to Miss Debbie, our parent educator. (Yes, I still receive PAT visits. Yes, I feel like I learn a lot from each and every one) Anyway, I was explaining Sassy's fascination to Debbie, and she said, "Oh, so she's a collector?".

Hmm...

Yes.

A collector, indeed.

For whatever reason (understanding? validation? reassurance?), hearing her say this made me forget about how annoying the habit is and start focusing in on what a smart little girl she is and how her inquisitive mind is growing every day!

With that, I would like to share my precious girl, and a few thoughts...

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I wish I could find excitement in all things, just as you do.

I wonder what it feels like to possess the world's treasure in the palm of my hand.

I wish I could find the beauty in ordinary things, just as you do.

I wonder what it would be like to experience as much excitement as you do about sharing your new found discoveries and bright ideas.

I wish I lived in a world where this was the currency I dealt in.

I wonder what it's like to have possibilities that are endless.

I wish that I could focus on molehills instead of mountains, just as you do.

I wonder what it feels like to be sun-kissed and beautiful, just as you are.

I wish I had all my ducks rocks in a row.

I wonder what it feels like to know that my biggest worry lies in choosing the right one.

I wish I had one ounce of your spirit; one teeny-tiny drop of your beauty, one iota of your ability to make other people laugh in the tip of my little finger.

The world would be a better place with more of you in it.