My little bright spot

One of the brightest slices of my life today was the surprise drop in visit of my son and daughter-in-law and my so special grand daughter. Let me set it up.

I was almost to enter our school's down stairs door with our after school Nature Club. It had been over an hour of discovery in our Outdoor Classroom, which is delightful, but also work shepherding second through fourth graders through filling bird feeders, weeding and journal writing. Earlier in the day our classroom had two disturbing discipline incidents that had lingered with me.

But as we were about to go inside I heard someone shout my name and I looked over to see my adorable daughter-in-law waving from their car. She and my son had been in town and were driving down the street, then pulled in when they saw me. We conversed about the day.

I opened their car's back door and then came the most cheerful moment of the day. My darling grand daughter. I cooed her name and she turned to give me her usual three second quizzical look as she tries to figure out what new face has entered her world. The right side of her lip begins it's slight turn upward as she considers smiling. I continue talking to her, asking about her day. A smile bursts across her face. Eyes twinkling. A gurgle of a laugh emerges.

The trials of the day wash away and I linger in this joyousness. Soon it's time to go. Her eyes follow me as I move away and out of the car. She's a bright spot in my day, in my life.