If Pride is a Sin, I'm Going Straight to Hell!
Oct 17 '00
Last night my 5 year old daughter was “initiated” into Sparks. For those of you who don’t know, Sparks is the first level in the Girl Guides. First is Sparks, then Brownies, followed by Girl Guides, and then Pathfinders (at least I think that’s what the last one is called). There’s a myriad of other off-shoots of the Guiding movement, but please don’t ask me to name them all! I think a woman could probably be involved in Guiding until she died of old age and there would still be more levels for her to get to. But that’s neither here nor there. To get back to my point, my little girl in pink became a Spark last night.
Sparks wear pink t-shirts with the saying “I promise to share and to be a friend” on them, along with pink pants, and a pink hat which has yet to be received by my daughter. Perhaps there’s another initiation for that. Anyway, back to the point. I do tend to ramble sometimes, don’t I? My daughter’s initiation was as follows: the initiates sang the Sparks song, they sang O Canada, they ran under a really poorly made rainbow made of stripes of material (pink for Sparks, brown for Brownies, blue for Guides, and green for Pathfinders) which was taped to two hockey sticks (we are Canadian, after all), they were given rainbow pins which say Sparks on them, they read the story about Crystal, which is the fairytale of how Sparks started , they had sharing time (ten 5 year olds sitting in a circle not wanting to say anything at all….it was like pulling teeth for the leader), they sang the Goodbye Song (Twinkle Twinkle Little Spark, Time to go It’s getting dark), and coffee and dainties were served.
And there I was, sitting in the second row, peering around the really annoying, loud, grandmother in front of me. The one who just couldn’t seem to sit still, or stop talking about her neighbour’s gall bladder operation. (Don’t you always seem to find these people when you least want them in front of you?) And the tears were streaming down my face. My, oh my, I have no control over the tears when my little girl is making me proud. Now, granted, I am the type that cries over Kleenex commercials, and long-distance advertising wipes me out. But when my child is up there singing a song, or running under a rainbow, I become a blubbering idiot. All I can see is her face, shining, glowing, beaming back at me. And I melt.
I am so very proud of my children. They have so much confidence, so much talent, so much personality. They have lots of friends, they do well in school. They are polite, obedient (when they’re not trying to kill each other), and well-mannered. They really do have the ability to do or be anything they want….and being their mother gives me the right to be proud of them, and of the job I am doing raising them. So if pride is a sin, I am definitely going straight to hell.
Last night when I was tucking my daughter in she looked up at me and said “I could see your love tonight, Mommy.” And in my mind that makes everything worthwhile. Now, excuse me, but I have to find the box of Kleenex….the tears are starting to flow again.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
MumMumMum
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Member: Beverley
Location: Canada
Reviews written: 290
Trusted by: 419 members
About Me:
So good to be home, but so very tired!
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.