My daughter likes to wear boots to school in the cooler weather. They kind of remind me of army boots but with an uber-fashion sensibility. Somewhere along the way, she started to attach ballpoint pens to the tops of the boots. Today she now has an assortment of five or six clipped on. I think she does this so that she has options to more fully respond to her creative muse when she is doodling or daydreaming. Some few weeks ago, she sensed that something in her color palette was lacking and she asked if I could buy her a turquoise pen to add to her collection. We made a few attempts to find something when we were out and about on our errands, but had come up empty handed. Apparently turquoise is not a particularly in demand color. After our failures, we got serious and consulted the webternet. We found a local office supply depot that stocked what she was after, so we hopped in the car and headed over.
When we arrived we found the pen that she was looking for, but it only came as part of a set of eight pens of different colors. When she saw the price, she put the package back on the shelf and I could see her spirit deflate right before my eyes. When she gets her hopes up for something, she hopes with gusto. With disappointment in her voice, she asked if we could just head back home. I told her that it would be O.K. if we bought the whole pack. It wasn't that expensive and it might be her best bet to get the color that she was after. Somehow this possibility had not occurred to her. But her smile just lit up her face. On the way up to the cash register she gave me a hug and told me how thankful she was. As a parent, these moments where you get back these spontaneous tokens of love and gratitude, are priceless treasures.
