Khalia

It is no secret that I really love the family I've been living with for these last six months in Chicago. Put simply, they're fantastic. There are four kids in the family. Khalia is the youngest and is currently recently turned nine. She CRACKS ME UP every day. She is always asking me questions about my life and often says things that I don't think normally come out of nine-year-old mouths. She regularly tells me that she's gonna be so sad when I leave and contemplates the fact in her life that she's not married and will then forever be alone.

Last night Khalia was doing some more philosophizing, which I always love, but last night's I found particularly poignant. You see, I was pretty tired and stressed out, working on two big papers that I turned in today. So I am typing away and digging into books, and Khalia wonders why I can't play a game with her. Then she says, "You know, of all the commandments, I think the one people break the most is the one that says not to work on Sunday." Obviously, I felt like this was directed towards me, so Khalia and I and her father engaged in a little dialogue about work and rest and God and all of that. I left thinking a few things: 1) I can't imagine I ever even thought about this when I was nine, 2) why am I so bad at explaining things that I think to people, and 3) I can't argue with her about the importance of rest and I certainly don't do enough of that in my own life.

When I move out in about a month, I'm really gonna miss Khalia. And I bet I'll miss that I didn't take the time to play more games with her.