THESE ARE PRECIOUS By Ron Avery

These are precious!!!

Alas, where has all our innocence gone?

              While I sat in the reception area
                of my doctor's office, a woman rolled  an elderly man
                in a wheelchair into the room.  As she went
                to the receptionist's desk, the man sat there, alone
                and silent.  Just as I was thinking I should make
                small talk with him, a little boy slipped off
                his mother's lap and  walked over to
                the wheelchair.  Placing his hand on the
                man's, he said, 'I know how you feel.  My
                mom makes me ride in the stroller too.'

                *****

                As I was nursing
                my baby, my cousin's six-year-old
                daughter, Krissy, came into the room.
                Never having seen anyone breast feed
                before, she was intrigued and full of all
                kinds of questions about what I was doing.
                After mulling over my answers, she remarked, 'My mom
                has some of those, but I don't think she knows
                how to use them.'

                *****

                Out bicycling
                one day with my eight-year-old
                granddaughter, Carolyn, I got a  little
                wistful.  'In ten years,' I said, 'you'll want
                to  be with your friends and you won't go
                walking, biking, and  swimming with me like you do
                now.  Carolyn shrugged.  'In ten years you'll be
                too old to do all those things  anyway.'

                ******

                Working as a pediatric
                nurse, I had the difficult assignment
                of giving immunization shots to  children.
                One day, I entered the examining room to give
                four-year-old Lizzie her needle. 'No, no, no!' she
                screamed.  'Lizzie,' scolded her mother, 'that's
                not polite behavior.'  With that, the girl
                yelled even  louder, 'No, thank you!  No, thank
                you!

                ******

                On the way back from a Cub
                Scout meeting, my grandson innocently said to my son,
                'Dad, I know babies come from mommies' tummies, but
                how do they get there in the first place?'  After my
                son hemmed and hawed awhile,  my grandson finally
                spoke up in disgust, 'You don't have to make
                up something, Dad.  It's okay if you don't
                know the answer.'

                *****
                Just before I
                was deployed to Iraq , I  sat my eight-year-old
                son down and broke the news to  him.  'I'm
                going to be away for a long time,' I told
                him.  'I'm going to Iraq.'  'Why?' he
                asked.  'Don't you know there's a war going
                on  over there?'

                *****
                Paul Newman
                founded the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for
                children stricken with cancer, AIDS, and blood
                diseases.  One afternoon, he and is wife,
                Joanne Woodward, stopped by to have lunch with
                the kids.  A counselor at a nearby
                table, suspecting the young patients
                wouldn't know Newman was a famous movie star,
                explained, 'That's the man who made this camp
                possible  Maybe you've seen his picture on
                his salad dressing bottle?'  Blank
                stares.  'Well, you've probably seen his face on
                his lemonade carton.'  An eight-year-old girl
                perked  up.  'How long was he missing?'

                *****

                God's  Problem Now.

                His wife's graveside
                service was just barely finished, when  there was
                a massive clap of thunder, followed by a tremendous
                bolt of lightning, accompanied by even more thunder
                rumbling in the distance.  The little, old man
                looked at the  pastor and calmly said,
                'Well, she's there.

                *****


                May happiness smile on your world and in your heart.