Apr. 29, 2009 - On the Face of a Child
When adults get excited about something, you can sometimes tell. You can tell because they talk about it or they’re just extra cheerful for awhile, or perhaps they even tell you, “Hey! I’m excited about this!” But rarely can you look at the face of an adult and know, without any extra input, that they are excited about something.
Not so with a child. Children wear their excitement inside and out. It bubbles out into every aspect of their life. They just can’t help letting it show! Just look on the face of a child and you will see the sparkle in her eyes, the grin on her face, her whole body fairly quivering with excitement! No words need be spoken.
Yet speak they do. My youngest two started soccer this week. They were both excited about it, but this excitement showed very differently in each. My 9 year old is much more mature. When we first signed them up she asked constantly if her coach had called yet. She was calendar-oriented. We told her he wouldn’t call until the last week of April, and she stopped asking and started watching the calendar. He called the Sunday of the last week of April. She was obviously excited, but said little. I actually wondered how excited she was because by contrast with her sister she didn’t seem to show her excitement much at all.
But that’s because her sister is my Emily. At 6 years old, everything is still exciting and new for her. She is the type of child who delights in all things, and most of all in making people laugh. I prophesy that she will never be able to keep a happy secret because it will bubble out of her in spite of her attempts to hide it. When I look into this child’s eyes I usually see some mischief brewing inside. With that twinkle I can tell that she is planning to do something or to say something…and in the event make everyone laugh. This week there was so much brewing inside her that she could not contain herself. Her eyes shone with an extra sparkle. Her grin was wider and showed all her missing and growing-in teeth. Her whole body fairly quivered with the excitement of it all!
On Tuesday she would have her very first soccer practice. It doesn’t take much for Emily to have the feeling that “life just doesn’t get any better than this!” And this was no exception. She spent Monday reminding me that tomorrow she would be playing soccer. At about 4:00 she announced that it was almost tomorrow and that made her very happy! At 6 she decided that she would go to bed early so she would get a good sleep because she was playing soccer the next day! On Tuesday she waited on pins and needles for it to be supper time because she would be playing soccer after supper!
Tuesday came and off she went with her dad to her very first soccer practice. She returned with a blue jersey that goes half way down to her knees, talking endlessly of how much fun she had, still smiling as wide as ever, eyes sparkling brightly. Seeing the excitement in her face makes all the busyness of the season worthwhile. Suppers are squished between Daddy getting home and the soccer practice. On some nights others in the family have places to be before soccer is over, which means someone driving and someone going to soccer, and it is taking quite a bit of organizing to make this happen. But for that look in her eye…it’s worth it.
Tonight is Kathleen’s first soccer practice. She remembers playing a couple of years ago, and she is excited. I can’t wait to see her in her soccer jersey and hear all about her team and coach and what they decided to name themselves…
