If you have followed the Journal for long you will know that our regular co-writers, Liz Wessel & Terry Chapman, & I are endlessly interested in the role that creativity plays in caregiver's lives. You will also know that, as a photoartist, I am forever encouraging people to do more than just split-second looking at pictures.

Of course, I think my youngest granddaughter is cute as can be &, like most grandparents, take the chance to show pictures whether requested or not. The picture inside this picture holds magic.

Could any adult have come up with the idea of painting a caterpillar's body as a row of lollypops?

One reason I love hanging around with them is that little kids are creative geniuses. Listen carefully & they will open the window to the fantastical world you once occupied yourself. 

Caregiving is meaningful & is also grim work. Beauty can become foreign amid the ugliness you see every day. I have been immersed in hospitals for so long I thought for a moment that the word "Journey" on Caroline's tee shirt was "Gurney."

Discovering beauty in caregiving enriches our ability to heal & elevates life's journey. 

Imagination has been my salvation since I was Caroline's age. It may become hers twenty years from now after she has seen the suffering you & I know.

When she has reached that age, may she still see lollipops in unexpected places. 

-Erie Chapman

Photograph by Tyler Chapman