Today I was enjoying a typically agile conversation with my 6 year old son (in photo), one that moved swiftly from the topic of Halloween cookies, to icing, to food coloring, to the 4th of July to him asking me..."do we have freedom?" I jumped on this opportunity immediately, stopping what I was doing to look him in the eye and say "yes, we live in a country where we have freedom which is a great thing, but you are also free, in every moment, to make choices that you know are right for you..." I was just getting rolling when he interrupted me to say that wrestlers can take whole handfuls of peanuts and crush them into tiny pieces....(what?????)....I tried to keep the momentum of my speech, but he had moved on. I wanted so badly to tell him, to have him know, that he is free always, to be himself, to choose his own path, to change direction if necessary, to interpret life in a way that will add to, not detract from the world, but I was stopped short. This happens often. I am reminded not to take myself so seriously, and to trust that a seed has been planted. Better yet, that it is my choices, the living of my own life in freedom, that will teach more than any speeches I can make. So we both moved on, freely.
2 comments:
That's a great thing you shared with your son Leslie! And even greater, that you do this by example - because for all the speeches we give to our kids, what usually sticks is what they "see".
About the peanuts...that is a kind of cool fact...
Leslie, I don't know what to say...
Thank you for sharing this part of you that I always knew was there, yet never had the time to get into.
From the moment I met you and read about you in the "article" I knew you had a courage I truly admired. Then seeing you at different family events, I could see that you had a confidence and style and great family and friends. But this blog is a gift. Thank you. Maybe now at family events we can skip the small talk and get right to the heart of the matter! ;-)
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