Bean, my first-grader, was telling me over breakfast the other day how beautiful snowflakes are if you look at them closely, and how there are no two alike. He was very happy to share this information with me. And today, I am happy to share a pink variation of this idea with you. Today, as the world is exploding in shades of pink, I thought that each flower is unique and different and beautiful in its own way too. Every human being is unique and different and beautiful.
Parenthood, raising children with special needs or special abilities, raising artistic, intense, head-strong, stubborn kids, heck, raising any sort of child is going to be a challenge. We go into it thinking we will know how to handle any possibility, until we run across just a few of those possibilities and realize we know far less than we thought, and incredibly less than would be helpful.
And so, we get curious. How are other moms handling things? How are other parents doing this deal? When we think they won’t laugh at us and remind us what challenges we were growing up, we call our parents. We read books. We look to our own brilliant charges, because they often have the most to teach us. We look to our kids, to our very specific situations and challenges, and embrace the beauty of them. We will mature to meet these challenges. We will blossom and bloom as we pay attention to the needs and specific and amazing growth habits of our very own flowers.
We will ride out the seasons. We will have big bursts of new growth in the Spring, we will hang out and be green and warm and looking for places to swim in the Summer, we will get blustery and breezy and maybe dramatic in the Fall right before we shed our leaves; and we will get cold and sullen and stubborn in the Winter when we hide away and rest and regroup for another big burst of growth in the Spring again.
When we remember that there are cycles to everything; and like Pediatricians will gladly point out, sometimes our kids can be the most frustrating right before they are about to conquer something amazing like walking, or speaking in full sentences. As they get older, we forget they still have huge milestones happening all the time. They may not be as obvious to us, but First Time they didn’t Hit Someone they really Wanted to Hit is an impressive accomplishment all the same.
