Thursday, January 23, 2014

Connecting with a Child



You wake.  The rustling starts in your room - I feel it more than hear it.  And then the squeak of the hinges from your bedroom door fills the silence.  I hear your feet slapping against the tile floor before I see you.  And I don't know yet how our morning will go.  You come around the corner and stop to stare at me for a few seconds.  I drop whatever I'm doing and turn to you with a toothy smile and open arms and tell you how happy I am that you are awake.  Some mornings you climb into my lap.  Those are my favorite mornings because those mornings are easy.


Other mornings your eyebrows furrow in my direction.  Your shoulder turns as I reach for a hug and I see the anger in your eyes. On those mornings you make me work harder for that smile I love so much. But that smile comes, now.  If I work.  Always.
This is progress.


I've studied you.  For four years and seven months I've watched.
Learned.
Tried.
Failed.
Failed.
Failed.
And succeeded.

There is one lesson, one most important lesson, that I have learned about you.

You feel love through service.

It took me four years to figure out this truth in you.  Four years is much too long to find a truth as important as this, and for that I am sad.  But I am happy that it did not take longer.  I am happy I took the minutes, the hours, the days, the months, and the years to ponder about you.
Because now
I know.


It is not really in my nature to serve.  And you are good for me in that way.  You are making me into a better person because I care enough about you to change myself.  The progress is slow.  But it is moving.

It is not really in my nature to serve, even though my days are filled with serving.  But I see now that folding your laundry means little to you today.  Much greater is the time I take away from the folding to help you reach that toy.
To fill your cup with fresh water.
To tie that string around your toy car.
To read that storybook.
To serve you in ways that you feel,
ways that you see,
ways that you understand.


So that is why, on the days when you awake with furrowed eyebrows and anger in your eyes, I dance in service circles around you.  That is why, when I see that my service has erased your furrowed eyebrows and replaced the anger in your eyes with joy and love, you see my fist pump the air.




Because I love you.
Because I want you to know that.
Because I want you to feel that.
And that moment when my heart connects with yours and I know you've felt my love?
That is a beautiful moment.

13 comments:

  1. I wish I could see a Miles scowl in person! Park is very much this way. Especially when it comes to food. A really, really rotten day can be saved by making him some Ramen.

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    1. Ha! I miss that boy. (and you)

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  2. I love this Linds.

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  3. Miles and all the rest of the kids are lucky to have you as their mom.... Not to mention how lucky I am to be YOUR mom!

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    1. I learned from the best mom. :)

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  4. A gift really. For you both. And, what better way to spend your life? Figuring out our eternal relationships.

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    1. How insightful, Mindy... I love that.

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  5. So I have a thought for you... I used humor all of my boy's lives to manage their moods like this. But I think sometimes I didn't do them a service, and that maybe it might have been healthier to let them have their moods, and comment on them so that they were more aware, and let them learn to start managing their own moods rather than me managing for them forever. Does that make sense? Though dang it it is easier on the home when we're able to make those kids be happy!

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    1. Interesting. That *does* make sense and I absolutely love the idea of teaching your kids how to manage their moods. It kind of goes back to the conversations we've had about how much to step in and solve your kids' problems, and how much to let them go and make their mistakes, you know? I'll have to think more about this...

      As far as this specific situation goes with Miles, it goes a little deeper and a little more personally than I let on here... and it doesn't have so much to do with managing Miles's moods as much as helping him feel my love for him. I've been wondering lately if the anger that he directs towards me, and if the sort of 'disconnect' that has always been between us, is because he hasn't felt much love from me during his little life time (which absolutely breaks my heart). So my goal isn't really to help him 'be happy'... my goal is to help him 'feel loved' (which, I've seen has then helped out the mood, too (how nice to have a 4 year old and not a teenager!)) Does that make sense?

      But, again, I really love what you said about managing moods, and I think I'll keep that in the forefront of my mind when Miles remains grumpy even after I've filled up his little love tank. :)

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    2. Oh very interesting. That certainly could be. You know I have a difficult one of my own, and as much as I have wondered throughout his life I can't say for sure why our relationship is so much more difficult. (Or why he takes out all of his garbage on me instead of the other parent in the house.) Maybe you could use a hybrid of what you said & what I said--just make sure that you verbally acknowledge his mood using good labels before you start your work of showing love. Did I ever tell you that I realized my child's love language was physical touch, and that I wrestled with him for years in the family room? Mad crazy laughing wrestling matches. And when it went too long between wrestling, things got worse between us. Then he got too big and I've switched to back rubs and back scratches...but it's the same. And as I type this I realize I'm still not doing a good job of labeling his moods--so that he can decide if he wants to come across as cranky/angry/whatever. Thanks for making me think!!

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    3. Now that you mention it, I do remember your wrestling matches turned back scratches. I am guessing Miles and I will always have a sort of strained relationship (much like yours) but I hope that it's because he knows I am a safe person to vent his frustrations to. As he learns to control his moods, he'll have to have some sort of 'out' and I'm hoping that if he chooses me it will be because he knows I will love him no matter what he says or does, not because he feels like I don't love him anyway (or a variation of that). I'm glad about this conversation because I'm going to start making a conscious effort to help him recognize and work through these little angry moods... all the while showing as much love as I can. :)

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    4. What a good spin to take on it. I should work towards that, rather than the place I always end up in which is "Why does he hate me and not you???" But seriously...if he would just be really nasty towards Russ even once or twice, it would go a long way towards restoring my equilibrium... ;)

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