It was a lovely summer day. Grandkids were enjoying the pool. The two-year-old grandgirl was intensely absorbed in playing with her school bus and play figures on our screened front porch while her mother and I stood nearby engrossed in conversation.
Our talk was disrupted by our little girl saying in a clear voice, “frog.” Immediately, we looked at each other and chuckled, “How cute.” We knew the baby was saying the word frog because something she saw in the playset looked like a frog. We knew there was no frog.
But if the baby wanted to call something a frog, how cute was that. I even looked around at the toys to see if anything could remotely be taken for a frog. Nope, the baby was so cute but wrong. We’ll play along because we’re the adults (wink, wink) and know better.
Our little girl insisted and repeated, “frog.” Before I could even take it in, her aunt crouched down and looked inside the bus. Charlotte exclaimed, “Hey, there’s a frog in here!” There it was. The frog. Not a playset figure. A live bright green frog that had stowed away on the bus during its poolside layover.
What quickly came to mind in all of this was how easily we dismissed what the baby said. We allowed what we saw with our own eyes and not what we heard from someone else’s lips to shape our understanding of her words. The baby was accurate in her observation and declaration. The adults were not accurate in our critical thinking nor our conclusions.
Curiosity not certainty is what’s needed when
what you see doesn’t line up with what you hear.
GrandMary
Look again.