Another Lesson From My 3-Year Old

Every night when I am tucking my daughter into bed, we read a few stories and then we lay together talking, about the day that is ending and the day that is to follow. She’ll say, “What day is tomorrow?” and I tell her the day of the week and then she’ll ask, “What are we going to do tomorrow?”

Sometimes we have “big” plans like a trip to the pool with some friends or an afternoon at the park for kite flying and a picnic. Sometimes we don’t have anything planned so I’ll ask her what she’d like to do and we’ll make a plan. Other times I’ll tell her that we aren’t going anywhere away from the house but we’ll decide what fun things we can do around the house and yard together.

Well, today, the plan for the day was that my mom was coming by first thing in the morning and picking her up to go to the airport to get my dad. My daughter LOVES the airport so she was giddy. Then I told her that they were going to take her to the zoo. Even giddier she got. And a little scared. She loves animals but she also loves to be scared of them. So we talked for a while about the different animals that would be there and how no, they can’t eat her.

She dozed off and I continued to lay there with her thinking about how to her and all children, life is all about a series of experiences and things to do. It doesn’t matter big or small, but they love to do things. I don’t know about other kids, but mine never asks about what she’s going to eat or wear or buy or who she’s going to talk to and what will she say when she sees them.

All the things that we start to get caught up in as adults take us away from the true act of living the life we have. Instead of filling our days with thoughts of conversations gone wrong, friendships that drifted apart, purchases we can’t wait to make, how we look, what others think of us, if we think more like a child and spend more time thinking of the things we can DO with our life, I think we can find more inner peace and confidence and joy. No one ever gushes about how great their trip to the mall and waiting in lines and eating fast food was that day. Replacing the consuming with things that make up true life experiences like playing in the sand at the beach or planting seeds and nurturing them until they bloom makes life so much more fulfilling, so much more joyful, and full of pride in seeing a life being lived rather than one slipping by.