A Lesson From Mackenzie
I've always said that children are amazing teachers, so it comes as no surprise that Mackenzie taught me a great lesson today.
It was a cloudy day this morning. So at the first sign of sun, we took both Mack and Bree to the park just down the street. Mack went on the swings first as usual. An older girl with her mom wanted her mom to push her higher because Bryan was pushing Mack so high. You can tell the girl was jealous. I'm sure the mom was cursing us on the inside thinking, "thanks a lot for teaching my kid to swing high. Now she's going to bug me forever!"
Then Mack went on to the slides. She first went up the stairs to warm up, then she climbed this 3-foot rock climbing wall, and then she went on the other side to climb this metal bars that were about 3.5 ft high. She's been attempting this for a couple of weeks now. I've always been too nervous to let her go on her own. This time, Bryan was behind her. He gently guided her to go up. With every step, she did on her own with confidence. She was on the top and I was about to cheer that she did it on her own when bam! She slipped and fell down 3.5 feet! You could hear a bang where her head hit one of the bars and she was on the ground wailing.
With Bree in tow, I ran over and said, "Bryan! I thought you had her!" (Way to make him feel more guilty eh?) And Bryan said he thought he did! He thought she had made it on top. The truth is, so did I. She would've slipped whether it was me there or Bryan there.
It took about 5 minutes to comfort her. With pain in our hearts, we thought we had ruined her from climbing ever again. She had a huge bruise on her left cheek, with a goose egg on her head, plus a bruise on her nose. I asked her if she wanted to go back, she said no. With a few more cuddles, we let her go to play however she wanted again.
Then without hesitation, Mackenzie went on to those same metal bars again, as if nothing had happened 5 minutes before. With Bryan much closer to her side this time, she made the climb without a hitch.
Then she wanted to brave these crazy bars that no 2-year old could do. But she insisted. Despite the gaps between each rung, she demanded that we helped her go up. And she did...twice.
And that's Mackenzie. When she has her mind set on something, she does not give up until she gets there. And when she falls and gets hurt, she cries for a bit, brushes herself off, and forgets it ever happened.
Even though we were there to comfort her, turned out, she was the one who taught us something instead.
I've failed at many things in my life, each time feeling the hurt, instead of moving forward, sometimes I would give up and retreat. But what if I could have the same fearlessness as Mack? What if I got back up and climbed again? Not only would I know I could do it, I would find something better and cooler to climb after that.
And that's the lesson my friends. Children are always there to remind us how we should be. And today, Mack taught us that falling is inevitable, but getting back up is a choice.
Gosh, I hope she'll always be this way. I hope this girl will always persevere.
It was a cloudy day this morning. So at the first sign of sun, we took both Mack and Bree to the park just down the street. Mack went on the swings first as usual. An older girl with her mom wanted her mom to push her higher because Bryan was pushing Mack so high. You can tell the girl was jealous. I'm sure the mom was cursing us on the inside thinking, "thanks a lot for teaching my kid to swing high. Now she's going to bug me forever!"
Then Mack went on to the slides. She first went up the stairs to warm up, then she climbed this 3-foot rock climbing wall, and then she went on the other side to climb this metal bars that were about 3.5 ft high. She's been attempting this for a couple of weeks now. I've always been too nervous to let her go on her own. This time, Bryan was behind her. He gently guided her to go up. With every step, she did on her own with confidence. She was on the top and I was about to cheer that she did it on her own when bam! She slipped and fell down 3.5 feet! You could hear a bang where her head hit one of the bars and she was on the ground wailing.
With Bree in tow, I ran over and said, "Bryan! I thought you had her!" (Way to make him feel more guilty eh?) And Bryan said he thought he did! He thought she had made it on top. The truth is, so did I. She would've slipped whether it was me there or Bryan there.
It took about 5 minutes to comfort her. With pain in our hearts, we thought we had ruined her from climbing ever again. She had a huge bruise on her left cheek, with a goose egg on her head, plus a bruise on her nose. I asked her if she wanted to go back, she said no. With a few more cuddles, we let her go to play however she wanted again.
Then without hesitation, Mackenzie went on to those same metal bars again, as if nothing had happened 5 minutes before. With Bryan much closer to her side this time, she made the climb without a hitch.
Then she wanted to brave these crazy bars that no 2-year old could do. But she insisted. Despite the gaps between each rung, she demanded that we helped her go up. And she did...twice.
And that's Mackenzie. When she has her mind set on something, she does not give up until she gets there. And when she falls and gets hurt, she cries for a bit, brushes herself off, and forgets it ever happened.
Even though we were there to comfort her, turned out, she was the one who taught us something instead.
I've failed at many things in my life, each time feeling the hurt, instead of moving forward, sometimes I would give up and retreat. But what if I could have the same fearlessness as Mack? What if I got back up and climbed again? Not only would I know I could do it, I would find something better and cooler to climb after that.
And that's the lesson my friends. Children are always there to remind us how we should be. And today, Mack taught us that falling is inevitable, but getting back up is a choice.
Gosh, I hope she'll always be this way. I hope this girl will always persevere.
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