To Evelyn on Her Ninth Birthday

At nine years old you're halfway to eighteen, so you're half of a legal adult. It's amazing how time sometimes seems to move slow, and sometimes it seems to move fast.

When time seems to be moving slow it's because you're not interested in now. Many people spend their days wishing away their days. Wanting one thing to end, then another thing to end. Before they know it, they are old and have wished away their life without having really been there and lived it.

You can find some value in anything. Humans are made with that unique ability. Discover what the value in the moment is and enjoy it. And, take that time to think about what you would be more interested in, and make a plan to do that.

When time seems to have moved by too fast, remember that everything you've experienced contains an infinite amount of information. Even tiny things, like a piece of sand, have an infinite amount of information. When you look through a microscope at a piece of sand you can see that it's like its own little world that can be divided into atoms, and even smaller things. The piece of sand is also part of a beach, the beach a part of an ecosystem, the ecosystem a part of the world, the world a part of the galaxy, the galaxy a part of the universe. And, the sand has a history. Maybe this piece was at one time a bigger rock. That rock was formed somehow. Or, maybe it was part of a shell. That shell was made by an animal. It goes on and on.

Now, if a single piece of sand has that much information, imagine all of the places you've been, the things you've seen and heard, the people you've talked with, the things you've thought, the things you've made. In comparison to our ability to understand and process things, that's an infinite amount of life that you've lived. So appreciate that.

I know that's a lot of big words and can be hard to understand. Two things on that. One, you can go back and read this again as you get older and you know more. Two, work on understanding it now. Just like we've done when reading through fable stories. Take the words that you don't know and learn what they mean by asking people and looking up the definitions. Once you know the meaning of the words then reread the sentence and the paragraph. That way you can understand it. I've had college students that didn't know to do this and it stopped them from learning almost anything for years. You've even been to a college class with me. Understanding requires work and effort, but it's worth it.

You have a lot of opportunities. Take advantage of them. We've gone on a lot of little adventures, from feeding bison out of the car window to go-kart racing. Keep doing things. And take the initiative. Ask people to do things. Suggest things to do. If it doesn't work, don't get upset by it, just make a different plan. Ask again the next day, or week, or month, or year. Suggest something else. If there's a problem, see if you can figure out how to solve it. Keep listening to and reading 'The Way of the Warrior Kid', it has a lot of good examples of doing, learning, overcoming fears, and taking the initiative.

Remember the good times and then seek to have more. Since you're into cooking we've done a lot of that. We've been able to have Italian and Polish food at the Culinary Institute of Michigan. We met the pastry chef from the 'School of Chocolate' tv show, Amanda Miller. Just a few weeks ago at granny's we went shopping at the grocery store, had a wild show about baking and engineering playing in the background, you and I slowed cooked chicken for the next day, you and granny cooked burgers for us to eat that evening, and you and granny baked brownies for us that night. And you did almost all of the cooking and a lot of the baking. Getting good at anything comes down to study and practice, and you're starting to get there with cooking.

Enjoy the cold when it's cold,

the warmth when it's warm;

straight hair when you have straight hair,

curly hair when you have curly hair;

and being nine when you're nine.

Happy birthday.

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