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Self-Care Tip – Stay connected for your sake and for theirs.
We have all seen “kids” who stop talking. Driving by, their faces in the car window a little strained, their bodies postured away, maybe their hand fisted under their chin. Their parents lost their chance. Whatever they now want their kids to do, they’ve lost more than their authority. As have the kids. The kids lose out on having their parents voice in their lives.
It is the same with us in the world. When the world stops speaking to us, we lose our influence. When we stop speaking to the world, the world stops listening. We loose our voice. People won’t listen when we want them to.
Some of us may not be in that place now, but there will come a day when we want the world to care what we say. I’m not talking just about leaving a legacy, or having people care about what we’re going through when we are in crisis. This includes all the other times of life. The in-process times.
When we are angry at whoever graffitied our neighborhood. When we survive prejudice. When we share our child with the world. We want to have a voice.
And if we stop speaking, we will lose. If we don’t respect the opportunity to connect, if we don’t treat it as the treasure that it is, not only will the world miss out on the “Me,” we miss out on the world at large. It goes both ways.
We have a choice. Get friendly with yourself. Speak. Listen. Connect.
Question: When have you wanted to be heard? How does it affect your life to be connected? Please tell me your story.
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As I reply to these post, I am realizing how much of my life revolves around air travel. I am in the about the sixth hour of sitting in an airport waiting for a flight. The really cool thing about this flight wait is that I have had my five year old son next to me the whole time. How could sitting in an airport with a five year old for that long be cool? One word…… zombies. We have kind of a long term unspoken deal. I, as most parents, expect my kid to do a lot of things that are very difficult for some one his age…. sit still, don’t talk too loud, don’t run for six hours. He makes an honest effort to act beyond his age and I let him know that I am proud of him for that. In return, I make an honest effort to closer to his age. The latest fascination is a game called, Plant vs. Zombie. I can have a conversation about any zombie or plant they have and love the creative thoughts and ideas he comes up with involving them. Several hours ago, i was surrounded by around eight kids that had seemingly endless questions about zombies. I knew most of the answers and came of as “pretty cool”. By dumb luck a computer game which could be notorious for shutting a kid off from the outside world, has caused us to have endless conversations and “bonding”. Not bad.
seriously, “not bad!” Including our children in our work is a great education. I see, for both child and parent! 😉
I was able after my 3rd child, bring him to the office w me when he was an infant and I will always treasure that time.
keep on!
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A friend of mine coined the phrase ‘polite neglect’; where a parent is present, but not connected.
It’s very sad.
That’s a cool phrase. It is sad for everyone. But am I hearing this right? I guess I’m more familiar with the less polite forms of neglect :). Thanks for commenting Cindy. Keep on!
I always want to be heard. That’s why I write and talk to so many people. It’s so important to remember and remind how important communication is. We need to all remember that we are apart of something and each other so that we can will ourselves to continue on in this world.
This was a wonderful post. One of the best anywhere.
i think i’m going to cry. that meant so much to me! thank you for reading and for your feedback posky. keep on!
(maybe too much information on my part! 😉 )
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Excellent insights – thank you for sharing and for calling attention to this issue.