Grandma's Chinese painting

"The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. " (Ecclesiastes 7:8)

Our son visited grandma with us. Since he was gone for awhile, Grandma eagerly showed him the paintings she has done in the last few months. A few minutes later, she came to the living room and said, "Oh, I showed him how to paint fish and he wanted to try."

When grandma first showed our son how to use the brush, water, colors and ink, she had her hands full. After one or two strokes, he needed to go to the bathroom, then it was having to eat something, or to drink some water. His requests did not distract Grandma, who used to be a grade-school teacher in Taiwan. She patiently encouraged him to learn.

Little by litte, our boy learned to paint. In fifth grade, he won the Chinese Painting competition in his Chinese school. We were so proud of him when he won first prize for his grade level among a couple hundreds of Chinese schools in Northern California! The time grandma spent with him was really valuable, not just because he learned to love Chinese paintings, but also to enjoy the time they spent together.

After 15 minutes or so, I walked into the room to find out how he was doing with the fish. Here he was, 22 years old, using ink and water with his brush. I watched and we started talking. He didn't think he painted fish that well. I thought they are beautiful!

Copyright © 2005 Parenting ABC