There’s something beautiful about the journey of parenting. And while so much of the wisdom shared around parenting focuses around how quickly time goes, including the idea that there are only 940 Saturdays or weekends from when your child is born until they turn 18, I tend to find myself focusing more on how I want to relate to our girls. In other words, how to nurture the relationship we have been building year after year because while there may only be 940 Saturdays until they turn 18, I expect that our bond will extend well beyond those 940 Saturdays. And, so, for me, a good part of this parenting journey involves our relationship, but it also includes my considering how I choose to live my life and what message my girls will pick up from how I spend my days.
In previous posts, I have talked about the fact that these two remarkable young women encourage me daily to be the best version of myself I can be. In other words, they inspire me to consider who I am and who I am created and called to be (and become). This involves reflecting on my choices, my perspectives, and the possibilities set before me. Each day I want to build on the ways the Creator designed me so I continue to develop those gifts and abilities as well as to shine brightly where I am.
I want to live a life that reflects the wonder and possibility each day holds. That our lives hold. If my girls learn one thing from me, I want it to be how to live an extraordinary life even on the days when life feels slower paced or the day is filled with smaller steps along the path and ordinary moments. I love that my girls have provided me a perspective on my life that involves seeing beyond the obvious things. I am grateful they have spurred me on to pursue the small beginnings and the big dreams that stir my heart. In the quiet moments, I am awash with the immeasurable joys of this journey of daily life lived one moment at a time.
I have seen too many people lament their daily lives, lament the paths they have taken, but watched them also refuse to take any chances or make any changes. Parenting these two remarkable young women reminds me to examine my life regularly and to create changes where I need them. My husband and I were remembering their early years, how much busier they were as I created invitations to play and learn and explore. We spent those days reading and playing and taking adventures, even if only in the backyard in their imaginations where they created stories and became adventuring explorers.
Their teen years are a bit quieter—for the moment—as we take some time to consider opportunities for teen hangouts and neurodivergent reading groups and creative writing & art co-ops. I love that we get to take this daily journey together and that as we do, I get new daily opportunities to encourage them by the unschooling things we pursue but also in my own pursuits. I am grateful for these things because I am acutely aware this is not necessarily the typical experience many parents share with their teenagers. I hear about power struggles and challenges around things we do not experience here with our teenagers. I hear and read posts on social media filled with exasperation and exhaustion and sarcastic snark.
In those moments I like to take a moment and refocus on the big picture of our lives here and consider the possibilities we have before us. This life we live is created by the choices we make and many of those choices are small and simple, at least on the surface. But they inform the directions we take and the paths we end up on. I am grateful that our family tends to consider those possibilities together, also in many seemingly small and simple ways. It is my hope that our girls will see in me and their dad a way of embracing life that inspires them. May they always see what’s possible and may it fill them with joy each day.