About a year ago, on our way home from a friend's house, Rylee asked me a pretty
intense question. She asked, "If God is everywhere, and Grandma Jean and
Uncle Caleb are with God, then does that mean Grandma Jean and Uncle
Caleb are everywhere?"
I'll admit I was stumped on how to answer, so I said,
"Let's call Grandpa, he's better at explaining something like that than I
am." We called my dad and he was blown away by Rylee's question. He
couldn't believe it came from a seven year old. He said, "Let me get back
to you on that because I want to give you the best answer and I don't know how
to make it so you can understand." So we moved on with life. Months went
by and every once in a while my dad would let me know he was working on an
answer for Rylee. He said he posed the question to several people and they were
all very impressed by Rylee asking such a deep question at her age. I told my
dad not to worry about it and that Rylee probably forgot all about the question.
Well that wasn't going to happen. Of course my dad was going to get her an
answer, whether she liked it or not. So about a year later my dad had an
answer, he explained about God's ability to be omnipresent. As humans, we don't
have that ability. He explained it succinctly and successfully. (She did need
to be reminded of the question, c'mon, it was a year later.)
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| This is Angel when we first got her/him. Rylee named her/him Angel because she said, "She looks like an Angel." |
So here we are, Tuesday night, I've preheated the oven for dinner,
cleaned up the kitchen, and I decided to clean the fish bowl. Rylee got her
fish as a surprise the first day of kindergarten.
Rylee's fish, Angel, has been around for over two years.
(Technically this is Angel number two. Angel number one was set next to an
incandescent light, unbeknownst to John and I, the first night she was with us.
I never told Rylee that she basically cooked that poor fish.)
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| This is Angel in November of 2014, she/he changed color. Apparently Beta fish do that. I know, I Googled it. |
So Angel number
two has resided under an LED light these past two years and has done just fine,
until tonight. (And another technicality I must mention for posterity, Angel was a dude. Rylee didn't care that we actually bought a male Beta. She wanted her fish to be a girl, so a girl she was, minus the awkward discussion with his Beta parents and large therapy bill.) I cleaned the bowl and Angel didn't handle it too well. John and
I noticed she hadn't been looking that great this past week but it's not like
we could do anything for her. I guess she got traumatized by the transfer
process tonight. It was just her time I suppose. Rylee was there. She cried and
said her goodbyes. We waited to have the standard fish funeral until John got
home from work. We all marched into the bathroom, hummed Taps, pretended to do
a twenty one gun salute, and keep it light. Rylee laughed at John and I being
silly. She flushed Angel as I quoted Finding Nemo, "All drains lead to the
ocean kid."
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| February 2012 |
We filed out of the bathroom and sat down to eat. Rylee said, "I'll bet when
animals die, they get to be God's pet." John and I agreed.
Then she said,
"But I'm not going to ask Grandpa about it, it would take way too long for
an answer."
Yes, John and I laughed pretty hard at that comment.
Later John pointed out how tasteless it was to serve fish
sticks for dinner.
