It's Only Candyland
My new motto for life's frustrations is "It's Only Candyland." This was taught to me by the quietest, littlest, hungriest (for food and affection) little kindergartner I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Christine. I joined Christine and Ruben, eight years old, and Sara, another volunteer, for a game of Candyland. I continued to draw cards that only had me moving one to three squares at a time, max. Everybody else was drawing doubles and symbols moving them quickly towards the end while I was just barely out of the starting gate. I was feeling that yucky feeling I get when it seems everyone else around me is doing so well and I am in a shambles. This is why I don't usually opt to play board games.
Nothing like a game where I am not doing well to bring out the frustrated inner child in me. I must admit I got a little dramatic when I drew the card with a symbol that actually sent me backwards to territory I had already laboriously moved through. And sweet little Christine, in her sweet little, barely audible, voice, says "It's only Candyland." Only it sounded more like "Iz ownee Caandeewaand." I burst out laughing. As did Sara. Out of the mouths of babes. I kept that gift in my heart all day long and found many occasions to tell myself "it's only Candyland." Like when I was frustrated with the traffic I was stuck in. And when the copier at work malfunctioned yet again. And when I kept getting interrupted while trying to get through some important work. "It's only Candyland" I said to myself. And smiled. What a gift.
Jennifer Lowe, a faithful Before School volunteer