I confess, I shudder to think of what Amazon will be recommending for me after this morning’s purchases. As Scarlett O’Hara would say, “I’ll worry about that tomorrow.”

A pink pop up castle, a tiara, princess gown, princess shoes, a princess’ magic wand, and a princess tea set will arrive Friday. Unfortunately, they will have to wait a few days to be unveiled. A world of pink. “A princess” is what she plans to be on Halloween though she denies she is a princess. Her brief life span of experience would seem to validate her denial as truth. But when she walks into the playroom her very own princess kingdom will be waiting.

I do not know how long she will play with her kingdom. Maybe five minutes. Maybe longer. Who knows. But what I do know, is she will walk down the stairs, turn a corner and before her will be her very own pink princess world. Who knows, maybe one day when faced with a challenge she’ll remember a day when the world, just for her, exploded in pink. Maybe she’ll remember just five minutes when she felt like a princess and served tea. Maybe she’ll forget.

I started to write “it’s a gamble” but the whisper gently stopped my fingers. How can you call offering hope a gamble? How can you weigh cost and return when in truth, we sometimes never really know, cannot know just what a difference a glimmer of hope might make? I think back on those who have touched my life in what I would consider life changing ways. They never saw the payoff. Never will. So, when Amazon flashes all sorts of pink recommendations for this ever so NOT frilly little hobbit, I shall just smile, giggle, and call those people of hope by name and whisper, “This one is for you.”