A couple of nights after I arrived for my most recent visit to the northland, Matt and Bec invited me to go with them to a fancy dinner party at the home of one of Matt's colleagues from the university. After shedding our winter gear, we all congregated in the living area to the side of the kitchen to chat and drink wine before dinner ... well ... that's what the adults moved to the beautiful sunken living room to do. My two grandgals, on the other hand, saw the living room as a paradise filled to overflowing with all sorts of things beckoning them to new heights of exploration and adventure.
While Coraline was completely enamored with the multitude of "don't touch" items such as figurines and glassware, Amelie immediately zeroed in on something entirely different ... the two small steps that gave the living room its sunken quality. That's right ... all little miss Amelie wanted to do was go up and down those steps, and nothing was going to stand in her way. Well, nothing other than the fact that she doesn't know how to navigate stairs just yet ... her lack of previous stair-stepping experience threw a wrench into her plan until, however, she quickly came up with an altogether brilliant solution to her dilemma. She is, after all, a genius just like her sister ... of course she is.
Looking up at me with her beautiful blue eyes sparkling and a mischievous little grin crossing her face, Amelie adamantly declared, "Ghee, come on!" Unsure that I had correctly heard what my youngest granddaughter had said, I asked, "What did you say, baby girl?" to which she even more adamantly declared once again, "Ghee, come on!" To further assure that I understood what she wanted me to do, Amelie then walked over, took my hand and pulled me toward the stairs. I'm sure you can surmise how I spent a good part of the rest of the evening ... yep ... I spent most of the evening being summoned to "come on" by the most adorable little 17-month-old gal to be her partner in disobedience. I'm pretty sure it was Amelie's super cuteness that kept both of us from getting in hot water with her parents that evening.
It only took that one act of getting me to help my granddaughter go up and down the two steps leading into the sunken living room for little Amelie to figure out that if she wanted to do something she wasn't supposed to do, all she had to do was say the magic words, "Ghee, come on!" to enlist my help in the commission of her crimes. Don't worry ... I didn't help her do anything dangerous or life-threatening ... for the most part anyway. I did, however, become her immediate go-to person when she wanted extra crackers before bedtime or to jump on the bed or splash all the water out of the tub or pull everything out of the cabinets or ... ummm ... or ummm ... or ummm ... other stuff like that ... yeah, that's right ... other stuff like that. Funny, now that I think about it, I don't think Amelie ever said, "Ghee, come on!" when she intended to do something she was supposed to do or that she knew her mom and dad would have given her permission to do. Nope ... that little rascal only played her "Ghee, come on!" card when it was something she knew she wasn't supposed to do.
I've thought a lot about those words over the last couple of weeks, those "come on" words. I've thought about how many times I let someone lead me into doing things I know I'm not supposed to be doing ... how many times I know better and yet I do it anyway ... how many times I follow when I should be leading instead. There's a great big old mountain of truth in those words, my friends ... a great big old mountain of truth indeed. Do some mulling over those words tonight ... do some heavy-duty, in-depth pondering and throw in a big batch of good old-fashioned thinking about those words.
"Ghee, come on!"
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