...space to be...

I received a beautiful gift from Eckhart Tolle today, a quote that reads, “If you have young children, give them help, guidance, and protection to the best of your ability, but even more important, give them space —space to be.”

I read this and felt a huge surge of YES move through my body.

Allowing our kids to be, giving them space to grow and learn and mess up and be beautiful all at the same time allows our children to be who they are.

And while this sounds easy it is not!

Last week I received guidance for my youngest son.  He has a lot of energy and can be intense and loud.  My husband and I are fairly quiet.  The TV is never loud; our music is always low in the background. We try not to raise our voices or scream or yell. We have created a fairly quiet and mellow family dynamic.  Our youngest; however,  has some other ideas for our family voice level. It can be frustrating for the rest of us, including his brother who will cover his ears at times.

I received some timely guidance from a trusted source who said, just let him be, let him yell if he needs. Don’t show him any attention, just ignore him and act as though it is normal.

It made me think, YES, this is in acceptance of who he is.  He is not trying to be mean, he is not trying to annoy us, it is just who he is.

And we can either fight him and show him our frustrations and try to change him to mold him into our ways. Or we can accept him just as he is, guide him, and give him space to BE.

We choose the latter and so far everyone is happier and he is bringing a different kind of joy into the home. A loud yet sweet side that gets my husband and I laughing and loving more.

Isn’t it true that we often try to mold our kids into something that they are not out of fear.  Fear of how they might be taken outside of the home or fear that they may cultivate parts of ourselves that we don’t really like.

It isn’t intentional, it is a pattern in us, in all of us.  It is time for us to work to let go of that pattern.

Today, I take a stand today for our kids, to raise them by accepting who they are fully and openly and by allowing them to then accept who they are fully and openly.

With that I believe we can change the world. Are you with me??

I would love for you to comment with a big YES on the blog today.