Kids are too fun for words - except that you can't tell them that you find them endearing or charming or funny, since they always take offense at being called young. That's ok - it's soon enough that we long for being carded or being mistaken for a hotty by a college guy or being "tsk-tsked" for something we've done or said.

It seems like little kids are such wonderful puppy dogs - they bounce all over the place, and are happy all over to do what you want them to do, or when they know they've made you pleased with them. Then, slowly, they transform into cats - aloof, yet still wanting to have the lap available when they want it. I've found that the best way to make myself feel like I still have some kind of control in the house, is to tell my son to do something just as he's started to do it himself. He rolls his eyes, but I have my moment of triumph! ;)

Teens are amazing with their tendency to stand on hilltops shouting "Don't LOOK at ME!" Going into college tempers that a bit, but that's the age that has to be so careful about what is OK - most things that are important have to be tempered with some caveat or other so that no one mistakes their interest for seriousness or maturity.

Our medical director and I were laughing today at how much we knew when we were first out of college - the patients' lives we were so eager to go out an save - and how little we know now. Armed with the finest of medical minds then, we're now learning the value of sitting with a patient and just holding their hand. Still, it's fun to watch the young bucks as they charge into life - so filled with hope and promisse and themselves! We have to turn our heads though, so they don't see us smile - they tend to think we're laughing at them, instead of the truth that we're smiling knowingly at the journey that they are embarking on.

I found this entry on a young man's weblog that is too funny - such a good example of what I mean - so charming, true from the standpoint that the young are so much smarter in many ways than I am, yet so wrapped up in being young that everything else they see seems so foriegn. For any woman over 45 years old reading this, set down your coffee so you won't choke while you read it! And for anyone younger than 25 years old reading this, please know that I'm not laughing at you nor criticizing your youth - it's hard to explain the feeling of affection and affinity I have for you, yet to have that understanding of what life will reveal to you over the next few years.

The Native Americans call it our "Long Face" - the changes that occur to all of us from cradle to grave - we believe that who we are today is who we really are - but if we allow ourselves to be "who we are" each day, we can look back on our lives amazed at all that can really entail.