“Grammy, can I put this on your wall?” Aryana inquired holding up her recently painted water color.   “”Yes, you can.”  She confidently walked over to the kitchen drawer, carefully opening it up and whips out…

a GLUE STICK…a glue stick?   “She’s going to put that picture on the wall with a glue stick?” an observer quietly, disapprovingly objected.  There was a crowd of onlookers with a horrified look on their faces.  They couldn’t believe how this was unfolding.  

To Aryana this simple act of putting her proud artwork on the wall with a glue stick was an ordinary, every day act.  She had gone to the  drawer with no worry of getting in trouble.  You see, she’s at Grammy’s house, and at Grammy’s house sometimes we do things a little different.  It was okay to do this because there was a day we really HAD to get our artwork displayed and there was no tape.  We made do with a glue stick when the importance of that moment  getting her artwork proudly displayed on the wall was more important than what could happen to the wall.  The still horrified audience didn’t have all this history.  Their worry was on “What about the wall?”  And my worry was making sure my little granddaughter knew I was proud of her, and that I MUST get that work on the Gallery wall.. 

Aryana and I had an understanding.  It was all okay, and I smiled as she filled my home space and heart with her love…and her JOY.

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**Writing this story reminded me of of other things we’ve done with this wall…It’s becoming a family history wall.  More stories to come.