NaBloPoMo Advice Column Day 9: Take a Lesson From Your Child - Inspired by Expecting Adam

I'm writing 30 thoughts in 30 days for NaBloPoMo. In no particular order, I'm giving you my worldview. I draw the topics from things that come up the day I post, or the day or two before I post.

Little people. They're so easy to discard. The messages get mixed up, the words tumble out full of emotion, the skill set can be admittedly limited. But underneath it all, I've found a layer of simplicity that helps me rethink the world.

Yesterday, I came home from work and Connor told me he'd been out collecting things for his homework. He was supposed to find leaves, nuts, seeds, flying seeds, pods, and other goodies falling from the trees this time of year. He hadn't been able to find any of the items in a couple of categories, and he was semi-distressed about this. So I told him to grab his coat and hat, we had about 45 minutes of reliable daylight left (stupid daylight savings time) so we better get on it.

There I was, scanning the lists of items trying to remember if I'd seen a sweet gumball in the neighborhood (remembering that Aunt Linda has a plethora of these all up and down her street). Did our neighbor have a tree shedding pods? What about the alley, would it be good for a black walnut? Connor and Helen ran in front, instantly making a game of their freedom. They came upon a pile of leaves and all of a sudden it was "raining" and wow, was that fun. But you know what? I would've missed it all, nose to the grindstone, if not for them. Sometimes it's nice to stop and enjoy the leaves.

Another thing I've been thinking about a lot with respect to Connor is he wakes up happy. Really happy. Every day. It doesn't matter what the weather is, what he's supposed to do that day, or what task got left unfinished before bed last night. I hear him bound down the stairs, and then he smiles and greets me, almost daring me to not have a great day. Because morning? It is here.

And these past few days I've gotten a good laugh because he's awakened to see sunlight, but his "wake-up" light is not on yet. So, believing that the wake-up light is broken, he puts the monitor right to his mouth and says "why isn't the wake-up light on" or "the sun is up" or something else - which makes Ed about hit the ceiling because it is so freakin' loud. I'm typically brushing my teeth in the next room, so it's not so alarming to me, just funny. Stupid daylight savings time.

The lesson in all of this? Sometimes I need to take a lesson from my kids. For most of the past few weeks, I've been making a habit of getting up before Connor, so that I'm more ready for his energy. I'm hoping it becomes a habit.

Building a worldview:
Day 1: Surround Yourself With Brilliant People (though my friend Susan makes a good point that clever is pretty good, too).
Day 2: Whatever, it works.
Day 3: Surround Yourself With Beauty
Day 4: When You Go Through Something New - Drag Someone With You
Day 5: No sweatpants.
Day 6: Embrace the Crazy
Day 7: Listen to Your Friends or Fight Old Fogey-dom. Get out there. Keep experiencing fun, new things.
Day 8: Don't Let Anyone Sell You Short

Disclosure: As a member of the From Left to Write book club, I received a free copy of the book Expecting Adam. I thought it was a well written, enjoyable read. I'm not at a place where I can believe everything in this book, but at the same time, I'm not actually doubting it happened. I recommend it.