I can draw hearts very well.

Last Sunday, I was on duty to help out at children's church.

We were working on some crafts, making rather clever, minimalist "purses" out of paper and string. Unfortunately, since I am, you know, too old, I couldn't make a purse for myself. Instead, I was stuck with cutting out the purses from sheets of paper and taping and stringing them into appropriate shapes.

What a pity.

I will admit, since I was young, I never did enjoy doing arts and crafts. Not very much, at least. All that stupid scissors-handling, the precise measuring, the finagling with sticky tape - so tedious. And whenever I'm rostered on for children's church, I always have to do these things, and be reminded of how much I hate them.

So anyway, I was busy snipping out bits of string to tie into the holes punched in the purses. And a girl whom I was taking care of, Kaitlyn, was sitting next to me and coloring her little purse.

She interrupted me suddenly, asking, "Can you help me draw a teirajlaef?"

A very important note to make: I volunteer to help take care of the younger children, ranging from toddlers to about 5-year-olds. Kaitlyn is about five (or maybe four, I forget). Now apparently, 5-year-olds are still quite lacking in their verbal abilities.

Rather strange to me. I'm pretty sure I was an eloquent poet the moment I jumped out of my mother's womb. I just leaped out into the doctor's arms and began reciting excerpts from Shakespeare, complete with theatrical arm movements.

Anyway, so Kaitlyn hadn't exactly said "teirajlaef" but she had said something completely incomprehensible to me. Luckily, I'm quite used to these situations by now, and so I patiently asked her what she wanted me to draw for her.

"A waurauea," she tried again.

Again, that was not exactly the sound she had made. Again, it had been completely incomprehensible.

"Can you try to doodle it out for me, and I'll try to draw it nicely for you?" I suggested, hoping that I'd get a better idea of what she wanted then.

She made a face, not exactly a displeased one but a somewhat impatient one, but took her pen anyway and made a quick scratchy jumble of lines on a spare piece of paper.

What the heck it was supposed to be, I had no clue.

"Hmm, I'm not sure if I can draw that very well," I muttered, trying to sound calm as I tried to recognize what on earth that bizarre, oblong shape was. "How about I draw a heart for you?"

She stared at me blankly, and I gently took the pen from her and drew a heartshape doodle on her purse. After a quick second, I handed her purse back and waited for her reaction.

Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened as she stared at my orange-colored creation. "Yes!" she cried. "This is perfect!"

And then she made me draw another heart with another color, I think it was green.

I don't know why I think this is worth writing and posting. It's just a fond memory I have right now, I suppose. Her pleasant satisfaction at my small doodle is quite heart-warming. It's nice to see that sometimes, if you get something that you didn't originally want, you can still end up happy and content. Because it might just surprise you and turn out even better than what you wanted in the first place.