One spring day my son comes to help clean the Koi pond and to change the filters. His daughter is two and she comes to help. This year I want to scrub the pond all through so we must catch the fish and put them safely in a tub-bucket so we can empty the pond.

I catch the fish as my son begins cleaning filters and draining the pond. I keep one eye on the apple of my eye. She is in heaven with all the activity and the fish now in the tub- bucket. She can see them so clearly now.

We adults are busy cleaning when we hear shouts of joy and giggles. The apple of my eye has caught a Koi and holds it gently in her hands while looking into its eyes.

We let her enjoy her moment and then her Daddy takes the fish and puts it back in the bucket. She sits and watches for hours as we work. Then the time comes when the fish go back into their home pond. She catches them and gently places them into the pond and is thrilled with her accomplishment.

Now she is a few years older and loves to feed the Koi. She teaches her baby sister all about the fish.

The joy she had on pond cleaning day is for ever packed away in my heart's memory. No grownup ever enjoys the way a child does.