Today ..
What a day. There has been a whirlwind of activity for 2 weeks, school resuming, starting middle school. Very busy, my granddaughter is thriving, evidently, ready for the changes.
i give credit to the schools, too.
Even when our children were entering middle school, schools were making adjustments to help the new students adjust to middle school life .. esp scheduling classes so 6th graders are with 6th graders, not thrown in with older students right off (like in my day - sink or swim!)
But, today. She was not well, tummy problems. Unusual for her to drag around.
She was quiet and napped nearly all day. Not wanting to eat, nothing.
The day before, she saw something that bothered her. She takes things hard.
We were picking her mother up, there was a small group of people nearby. i noticed, looked away, forgot about them.
She noticed the young woman gave one of the men something to drink, the man drank it, then threw up. i did not see this. Another time when we were out, she saw a man relieving himself on a sidewalk. She talked about that again, too. The world she sees is extreme wealth and extreme poverty.
She told me how these things hurt her to see, she said it feels as tho the images are “burned” into her memory like being branded. She cried, feeling so awful about how much misery is in the world.
i told her she has many who love her and want to protect her. her family, her church, her friends.
i told her i was glad she could find words to talk about it, and she can write about it, too.
With tears in her eyes, she asked to pray. Unusual. A first?
She prayed for the world to have relief from sadness, i prayed for her to be protected and safe.
Hours later, that evening, after her shower, feeling much better, she looked at me and said, “grammie, i’ve decided i want to pray more, to be closer to God, to go to church more,
‘and, yeah.’ “
She said she noticed when we prayed how much better she felt, it helped her.
.. God bless the little children. 
