Open Doors

All of my babies take after me in that none of them walks before 15 months . . . . and it doesn't look like Eva will be an exception. At 11 1/2 months, she is perfectly satisfied motoring around on all fours. And quite adept she is! It is entertaining to watch her grab a toy in each hand and move across a room at lightening speed on knees and elbows.

Eva lunges toward any open door, especially the door to our bedroom closet. She hears the squeak of the hinges and ZOOM she's got her hand on the door frame seconds after the door closes. What's the attraction? The pile of old shoes? The bag of drycleaning begging for someone to drop it off on that rare day when no one is running late for work? But to Eva it is all fascinating. Perfectly natural for a baby to want to learn everything she can about an exciting new world that is not yet even a year old in her eyes.

Maybe we should all be a little more curious about the place we live—this region we all call Kansas City, whether we live in Liberty or Lee's Summit, Lenexa or Olathe. A place that almost two million people call home. So I ask myself, how often do I get out into our community? Are there streets, neighborhoods, even towns I've never seen? Neighborhoods filled with people who, like the donors who have established nearly 2,000 charitable funds at the Community Foundation, care about the quality of life every person who lives here?

Before the summer is over, next time I see an open door to a part of our city I've never visited, I'm going to let my curiosity get the best of me and go see what's on the other side. What about you?