The alarm went off this morning at 4:00 am after a later night than I had intended. I’m beat.
I’ve spent the better part of the day traveling across the country, and hoo-boy is this one-post-per-day challenge turning out to live up to its name. Here’s something short that I’ve been thinking about for some time.
I’ve been lucky enough to spend a bit of time lately with this kiddo and his mama. They’ve been teaching me some very important lessons.
- Celebrate everything! Every achievement, no matter how small, is better when you take time to recognize it. At some point, I decided that certain things would/should happen, and I stopped celebrating the moments that they did. This is a mistake. You can totally keep celebrating things after you’ve done them twice, or ten times or more.
- The world is filled with wonderful things. Yes, there are giant cliffs and waterfalls in Yosemite, but equally amazing are the leaves that fall in the path, milkweed seeds blowing in the wind, the fact that you can drop small stones and pine needles through holes in the boardwalk, and puddles. OMG, puddles. I should really spend more time thinking “Whoa! Look at that!” about the common things.
- Making noise is fun. Cool ways to make noise include: stomping on bridges and boardwalks, rocking loose manhole covers, pounding on railings with a stick. Hitting keys on a piano is pretty fun too, but cool noises go way beyond that.
- Dance more. Music optional. Enough said.
[There’s more. I feel like I learn a lot about wonder and appreciation from time spent with those two. But, I’m tired. If you read this and feel like you have learned stuff from young kids, feel free to help me out in the comments.]