Week 8.
A couple months ago we took a trip to Colorado to visit some friends. We met them halfway and rented an old house on some horse property. The kids had a hoot exploring all the nooks and crannies of that space--it made me remember that the magic of childhood is so often found in exploring.
One of the days we went down to the banks of the Colorado River to skip rocks. It was fun to count how many times each of us could skip a rock. One of my kids really struggled and seemed to never make it past "one" skip. No matter how hard he tried, his skip was more like a plop. Meanwhile, as my husband was setting records at 7 or 8 skips, this child was stuck on one. I watched my kid start to sink into himself, having a little fit and saying he was "the worst at skipping."
It dawned on me that the only reason my husband was so good at skipping rocks, was because he had practiced so many times in his life (well, and he's pretty much great at everything). Doing something like that for the first time is tricky. It takes practice. It takes skill. It takes TIME.
I also noticed that the longer my child held onto his rock, the more chance he had of making the plop. If he could launch it sooner, it had a better chance of cruising up and down, skipping through that massive river.
How often do we hold onto things too long, only to find them plop right in front of us? We may feel like we're the "worst" at that thing, but the truth is, maybe we just held on too long.
I listened to a podcast from Oprah this week and she was talking about letting go. She said, "Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past could have been any different."
Think about that for a second. Letting go of the hope that the past could have been any different. I felt ALL the things when I first heard that. I felt freedom and anger and resentment and hope all bundled up in one moment. But as I went down as deep as I could with that thought...if the past really could not have been any different, then the present is right on track.
Even COVID-19. Even homeschool. Even masks in the grocery.
So if the present is right on track, then that must mean...so are you.
And letting go is the only thing we can truly hold onto.
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