One of the most wonderful things about children is their ability to fail and bounce back. Watch the kid trying to swing across the monkey bars. She makes it halfway, her hands tire and blister and she slips...... and she falls. What does she do? She lands and rolls in the playground mulch undeterred. She gets back up and tries again. I guarantee you that kid will make it to the other side of the monkey bars one of these days.
Children do not think of their mistakes as failures because when they fall, the adults around them encourage them "Wow that was so amazing!!! Get back up! You can do it! Next time you've got it." Children are sponges, so hungry for knowledge, growth, and learning... AH! I LOVE IT! What happens to us when we grow up? Why do we lose this?
As we become adults, we become professionals and very often we stop seeking knowledge in other areas of life. We have worked so hard to become this person who knows everything there is to know in our field. Being a professional is comfortable - after all, you are at the top of your game! You have worked hard and learned so much and now what you do becomes routine.
One of the most humbling and amazing moments for me this year was when I decided to learn to surf. A few months in, I was looking at all of these amazing surfers around me and I was getting desperate. After a two-hour marathon of being absolutely walloped by the waves, I was on the verge of quitting. I cried to Jeremiah because I was trying so hard and I just could not catch a thing.
"I am a failure," I said to him.
He looked at me, ever the amazing man that he is, and said, "No, you are just learning."
That's it! Isn't it? As a child you can fail and try and fail because children realize what we forget as adults - "failing" is a crucial part of learning. And man do we adults hate to fail! How we hate to make mistakes. It is uncomfortable, it is humbling, and sometimes (like in the case of surfing) it hurts! In addition to this, we adults are so tough on ourselves.
Can we just take a moment today to remember what it is like to be a child with SO much to learn? EVERYTHING was out of your comfort zone because it was all new. We get so much joy out of a baby's first steps, their first time singing a song or the first time they hold a pencil. I want to get back to this. I have felt so stagnant in my life these past couple of years and I think I know why. I have stopped trying to learn anything really big and new to remain comfortable. In many ways in my life, I was knocked off the horse and reluctant to get back up again.
When the waters are slow and stagnant, oxygen is low. Life is breath, life is oxygen. Life is in moving waters and crashing waves.
I am challenging myself this year to become a learner again, both mentally and physically. There will be days of frustration and days when I feel like I have forgotten everything I learned already. There are days when I surf and I feel like a complete beginner.
But on the days that I do catch that blue/green wave, I feel ALIVE.
So I will pick up something new. This year, it is the violin and let me tell you, I am one enthusiastic learner! On my first day practicing my dog, Rua, walked up to me and gave a huge yowling wine asking me to ppplleease stop playing. To be fair to her, that day I was literally playing one note over and over again. Poor pup.
True I may not ever be a professional violin player, but the act of learning something new has revived me. If we could all stop judging ourselves so harshly and laugh and play and learn something new, I think we might breathe life back into ourselves. I think we may find a piece of the child we have forgotten.
Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Mathew 19:14
Sending my love to you!
