We baked and decorated sugar cookies yesterday. The end products were not photogenic. 

There were some squabbles.  The time-out chair got some use. Flour somehow landed on noses, the floor and clothes. Still, we continued . . .

My grandsons are hands-on kind of boys with the eager-est of intentions.    Mixing, kneading, rolling out the dough, we were in a continuous process of forming our sweet creations. 

And then the clean-up, wondering how it all went so messy and disorderly. Then it became so clear.  The sweet formations were not the cookies. 

My eager, hands-on grandsons led me to the living room by the Christmas tree to sing carols.  It was their idea.  A Norman Rockwell scene. I recorded that in my heart to replay forever.   

Children are not of cookie-cutter-stuff.  They are unique, fun-loving sweet creations in constant formation.  I am the lucky one to be in the mix.

The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choices of actions.
     -------John Dewey

See Also

Pearls from the Sea

Sandcastles