I'd rather be me

Lilly has a new backyard toy. A swing, fort, slide, climbing wall etc. all in one. The kind I wanted to get for my kids, but could never afford. Dana and I went to visit the other day. Lilly, of course, wanted us to watch her on her new toy. Push her on her new swing, (not like that, Grama, higher, higher) We went into the house. Lilly was sitting on Dana's lap. Jennifer told her they were going to Papa Buhrman's for dinner. Lilly looked at her and asked "Is Grama going?" Jennifer said, "no, just Auntie Dana." Lilly looked me straight in the eye and said "I don't want to go with you. I want to go with Auntie Dana." No candy coating it, no diplomacy, just short and sweet...I don't want to go with you.

Here are the thoughts. We change. We become, sometimes, who we are not. We listen to others tell us what we should say, should think. At this same time that Lilly was being just herself, I was reading a new book . "Miss Alcott's Emails" It is a little known fact that before Dick Francis became my favorite author the spot was held by Louisa May Alcott. In this book we find a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson "Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self. There is something you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for." Lilly's words made me think of how we encourage people to become better at what they can't do well instead of saying "you can do these five things well, let's work on doing them great." I will try to do that with my family and friends. I will lead to their strengths not their weaknesses. I will encourage them to be themselves, to listen to their own inner voice, even if it is not one I hear or understand.

Yours in perfecting who we are,
Nancy