
I’ve blogged at great length about the fireball of energy that is my youngest child. She was obnoxious in the womb — always moving to and fro and somersaulting for nine months straight. We joked that as a baby we had to put her down with a mallet.
Not much has changed in six years (except her vocabulary and physical size). She’s a hands-on, can-do girl. She’s hilariously witty and often very wise and honest in her observations….even though she rarely realizes it.
Case in point:
Last week, we were waiting to meet with her 1st grade teacher for our first teacher-conference of the year. As we waited for the teacher to finish up with the conference before us, we leafed through some class “books” the teacher had put together.
One of the books was titled “Our Classroom Hopes.” Inside, on each page, a member of the class had finished the sentence, “I hope to…” and drawn an illustration above the text.
Most hoped to be good at science or math. The teacher hoped to learn more about computers. Some kids hoped to improve their handwriting.
My kid?
“I hope to be still,” complete with an illustration of her sitting ramrod straight in a chair at her desk.
I laughed out loud and said to my husband, “Way to set the bar high there, eh?”
He, too, bust out laughing and then said, in all seriousness, “Hey, that is a pretty high bar for her.”
So, it is.
In fact, being still, is a pretty high bar for most women these days, don’t you think? Leo over at Zen Habits thinks so.
Read what he has to say about the value of being still.
Once again, my happy, high-energy girl has proven that she is wise beyond her years.
We should all hope for a little stillness in our lives.
And, here’s hoping we don’t need a mallet to find it.