Watch that guy up there. Notice the moment when he sees that impossibly high hand-hold above his head, and he jumps–JUMPS!– to reach it? He's standing on a sheer rockface with his little toes on a tiny ledge, and the dude jumps! Then he does a flip around thingie to get himself higher so he can grab the hold, after which he just moves on.
Man, I wish I had those skills. I wish I had them in life too. Like, the ability to see an impossible situation, flip it all upside down and approach it from a totally different direction, and just keep going without a backward glance. Not only would I be as uberly cool as this guy , but I'd have gotten past a bunch of my little roadblocks by now.
Parenthood hits me like this a lot. Some strange thing, like a firehose of hormones blasting from all of my kids at once–including the one who technically isn't old enough yet to be grappling with them–happens when I least expect it, and I am left standing there blinking at the distance between me and the next sure handhold. Which, with parenting, is that place where you magically figure out what to do in that very moment. Sometimes I do manage the upside down flip. But then I get stuck and just hang there. Upside down. And someone either has to come get me or I fall on my head. From a great distance. And it isn't pretty. And it gives everyone else a headache.
Mostly I think the thing we have to learn as parents is this: as long as the kids know–and I mean KNOW–that we love them, they'll be okay if we miss the hand hold. Or don't do the cool flippy-thingie. Or even fall on our head and give them a headache. Kids can recover from a bunch of stuff as long as they feel loved. And safe. And secure. Completely.
Now I just gotta figure out how to get the rest of the way up the rocks . . .
Leave a Reply