Today I was sitting having lunch with my kids, while checking my facebook and my emails.
My son, wanting to sit with mom, crawled onto my knee and proceeded to eat my lunch instead of his, which I was happy to share (to which I’ve learned that sharing my meals is not actually a sacrifice of being a mom, but a great way to watch the waistline! It’s natures way of saying, you’re a big girl now... you don’t need as much!).
It was when he reached over my plate, the laptop, the phone, the” to do” lists and everything on the table, to grab his juice... which I, of course, envisioned spilling onto everything!!! It was as I started to hear myself say those words... “don’t reach over the table” that I stopped myself, as big lightbulb went on over my head...and just watched. Not only I had just watched my son get up and get exactly what he wanted, he wanted my attention and he just came over for it, but I was watching him as he set out to get his juice... and he would, no matter all the obstacles on the table between him and his juice. AHA, I thought...
It was more than just juice and plates to me, it was a representation of a goal and obstacles in the way of the goal.
And that’s when this hit me...Kids don’t care what’s in their way, they have no disbelief in themselves that they can’t get something that they want. They just go about figuring how to get it. They build a tower of toys and chairs to reach their favourite toy, they push a chair to the counter to get the treats from the top shelf, and they don’t stop until they figure out just how to get what they want. They don’t cry and babble that they can’t do it, well, maybe a little....but that is just to get you to do it for them! They are still getting what they want!
There is this complete lack of self-doubt that a child possesses! They do not believe yet that they are not capable of doing something, until of course we come along and tell them “NO”! How young we are when we start being trained “Not to”, or “Not Allowed to”.
Don’t get me wrong. We are not wild animals, we need to be taught limits, but “limits” meaning those that give us respect for others, compassion and care for our community of humans, but “limits” are not meant to limit our potential.
It was an amazing realization as I saw the human potential, in my son, that we have, to go for whatever it is we want. When did we, as adults, become any different than a child? Aren’t we supposed to become smarter and stronger? Yet we, as adults, give up...unlike a child, who still doesn’t accept that they can’t do something. Children have this amazing drive to get what they wan...and so do we...somewhere, it’s just to find it. We still can do whatever it is we want! We are smarter, bigger and stronger and more capable today, than we ever were, to reach for what we want.
Don’t let that obstacle path of plates, and bowls stop you from reaching for something to quench your thirst.
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