Precious Moments

A few weeks ago during a basketball tournament, Jessica asked me to quickly braid her hair before the game. It happened so fast I almost forgot to notice. She just asked me again. This time I didn’t forget to notice.

This time I savored every single moment of it.

Ten years ago I would braid her hair each morning before school. “There’s BUMPS in it!” she’d scream, yanking out the hair tie in a huff. I’d say that it looked fine, and quickly redo it, sending her off to school. We both hated it, but we sat through it each day anyway. Just part of the process.

She’s 15 now and that process is long gone.

But there she sat, on the floor in front of me. Hair tie on her wrist — waiting. I fumbled around, making sure to get the 3 sections even so it wouldn’t end up all lopsided. When I got to the end (That last bit is tricky), she handed me the tie and I did that wrap-loop-wrap action to get it nice and snug. She said “Thanks!” got up, walked away and showed her friend Robin. It was almost as if she were bragging.

And she didn’t complain at all about the bumps.