Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton is one of the most totally delightful and hilarious quick reads I’ve ever come upon.  It’s about an elderly lady, who decides to help a young shaggy haired, rotten-toothed juvenile delinquent headed for a life of serious crime.  Sweetly naïve, Mattie ignores all possibilities of danger to herself.  The take away from the book is to just keep walking across barren territory, loving and expecting no earthly rewards.

Just after finishing the book, I came across a note I had scribbled some time ago as part of an instruction manual I am writing for the Nanas in the “Nana Nook” of the learning center.  It said, “Never try to help a child you don’t feel you can love.”

When we think of all the love-needy kids who show up at every school every day, it is easy to feel overwhelmed.  How will there ever be help for all they want to do and become?

The answer is a magic trick and there are two things we can use to make it work.  And both are free!

1. Creativity fueled by imagination.  Look around you. Every thing you see in your room at this moment came into being through creative imagination.

2. Love that comes from a divine and infinite source, able to be plucked right out of the air, streamed through us and then delivered right to the child who needs it.

The very best things really are very simple.