A trip to the bookstore with my granddaughter is always a big production. She peruses the aisles for hours, touching the books, running her hands over the covers, picking them up, putting them back, looking at a few pages here and looking at a few pages there. I never realized how much importance my five-year-old GrandAngel placed on these excursions, until the day I suggested she pick the book she liked best, so we could get on home for dinner. Her response was remarkable. "But Grammy, I like them all the best. All the covers are bee-yoo-tiful and all the pictures are bee-yoo-tiful AND they're all different. Just like people. Remember when you told me about people?" I most certainly remembered when I 'told her about people'. I explained that each of us has a story to tell and no two stories are the same. We learn by telling our stories and listening to the stories of others. When we share our stories, we discover that each of us are different in our own beautiful way, and we understand that 'difference' makes each and every one of us, special people. I had no idea she'd equated the lesson with books. What a wondrous revelation! A good head and shoulders taller than the bookshelves in the children's section of the sto re, I looked out over the sea of multi-shaped, multi-weighted, multi-colored books, with their multitude of content, and the accuracy of the equation shot straight through me. It was perfect. No one book was better than any other book. They were equally beautiful and equally special. With dinner still waiting and our stomachs beginning to growl, decision time was finally at hand. But how to choose? I hit on the right question when I asked, "Which book wants to go home with you the most today?" After a short moment of deliberation, her eyes lit up. She ran to a specific book and removed it from its place on the shelf. The deciding factor was the picture on the cover, a turtle with sad eyes. "We need to find out why the turtle's eyes are sad." Later, snuggled deep in the covers of her bed, that's exactly what we did. © 2000 Terri McPherson Buckley Windsor, Ontario, Canada terri@wisehearts.com "You Are A Miracle" - The Book! The Flash presentation of "You Are A Miracle" has been viewed by more than one million visitors to WiseHearts.com. The Power Point presentation has been shown to church congregations across the U.S.A. and Canada, and ten other countries worldwide. Now, I am happy to present "You Are A Miracle" - The Book! - to lift your spirit and feed your soul. Framed Print of: I Am Not Gone Words From A Simple Heart: Bookmarks You can purchase Royalty Free Photos from iStock Photo to compose your own online creations for as little as $1.00. Midi by: Arlene's Heavenly Midis