Mondays Are A Time For....
The day has begun as a cloudy and quiet late Fall day. The mountain is shrouded, snow low on it's shoulders. Fog is lifting, but hanging near by, making driving across the one-way bridge a challenge no one wants on a Monday morning. My day has been centred around my lovely grandson, making breakfast together, blowing up balloons, lining up horses and telling stories to one another.
I enjoy our conversations, my young grandson and I. Everything is a negotiation, teaching him critical thinking skills. Questions are posed to help him decide what is important to him, ostensibly to defuse any tantrums over what is right or not. "Would you like cheerios or rice krispies?" "Would you like your red T-shirt or your green one?" It works so nicely, to give him some autonomy and empowerment.
These words have had me thinking since a discussion a week ago. A wonderful midwife friend told me what she thinks I should teach in Birthing Classes is autonomy and empowerment. Not labour and delivery, not breastfeeding, not stages of labour--and not that any of those are not important--but those two principals should be the guiding principals. I fully agree, but think it is something we should be teaching our children from when they are very young! Supporting our own choices, knowing our own bodies, letting others know what we need to keep our own choices in the fore-front of our day to day life.
I love what each day with my grandson teaches me. I love how his momma is making choices each day to enable him to become a capable child, a contributing adult. How many of us think of that when our children are still babies? I am grateful to have a big part of his life, consider it a gift that may not happen with any of my other grand children as they come, not nearly as deeply. So, on this day I am grateful! For:
~ toys on the living room floor
~a messy breakfast table, sucking peanut butter off fingers
~discussions over toys and special joys, horses all lined up
~clothing choices and potty training
~aunties and uncles all having substantial input, loving him as their own
~family support through on-going tug-of-war, keeping his best at the forefront
~unconditional love
~"moon and back and stars"
~"bunches and tonnes"
~paintings on the gallery wall, cupboard doors and refrigerator covered
~pictures covering the fridge, most with one little man at the centre
~lovely almost 3 year old conversations, reading stories, knowing the words now and the joy of REALLY knowing
I wonder if someday he will know the words of the Word? When I have the chance to tuck him in, we sing songs, praise and prayer. We have stories centred in the Word, building that faith from the cradle.
Autonomy and empowerment? Faith and Psalm 139, knowing who we are and why we are made, great design.
Today, a chance to contemplate the importance of the message, the one we live out in every day. And I am so grateful!
I enjoy our conversations, my young grandson and I. Everything is a negotiation, teaching him critical thinking skills. Questions are posed to help him decide what is important to him, ostensibly to defuse any tantrums over what is right or not. "Would you like cheerios or rice krispies?" "Would you like your red T-shirt or your green one?" It works so nicely, to give him some autonomy and empowerment.
These words have had me thinking since a discussion a week ago. A wonderful midwife friend told me what she thinks I should teach in Birthing Classes is autonomy and empowerment. Not labour and delivery, not breastfeeding, not stages of labour--and not that any of those are not important--but those two principals should be the guiding principals. I fully agree, but think it is something we should be teaching our children from when they are very young! Supporting our own choices, knowing our own bodies, letting others know what we need to keep our own choices in the fore-front of our day to day life.
I love what each day with my grandson teaches me. I love how his momma is making choices each day to enable him to become a capable child, a contributing adult. How many of us think of that when our children are still babies? I am grateful to have a big part of his life, consider it a gift that may not happen with any of my other grand children as they come, not nearly as deeply. So, on this day I am grateful! For:
~ toys on the living room floor
~a messy breakfast table, sucking peanut butter off fingers
~discussions over toys and special joys, horses all lined up
~clothing choices and potty training
~aunties and uncles all having substantial input, loving him as their own
~family support through on-going tug-of-war, keeping his best at the forefront
~unconditional love
~"moon and back and stars"
~"bunches and tonnes"
~paintings on the gallery wall, cupboard doors and refrigerator covered
~pictures covering the fridge, most with one little man at the centre
~lovely almost 3 year old conversations, reading stories, knowing the words now and the joy of REALLY knowing
I wonder if someday he will know the words of the Word? When I have the chance to tuck him in, we sing songs, praise and prayer. We have stories centred in the Word, building that faith from the cradle.
Autonomy and empowerment? Faith and Psalm 139, knowing who we are and why we are made, great design.
Today, a chance to contemplate the importance of the message, the one we live out in every day. And I am so grateful!
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