Ed here this week. Sharon and I have spent the last 2 weeks visiting our son and daughter-in-law in Vancouver. And our awesome 3 year old grand daughter, Sienna. She’s a great teacher, and when we told her that, she said that she wasn’t a teacher, she was just a kid. I don’t agree with that – any one can be a teacher – every one has something to offer.
Here’s some of the things I learned.
You can imagine anything
Sienna likes to ride her hobby horse, pretending that she is galloping along, wind in her hair. Or she pretends that she is Baby Kitty, or a puppy, or a host of others. She tells us stories of amazing adventures that only happen in her mind. When she plays with her Lego, she imagines she’s on a space ship, or a castle, or just about anything else..
We sometimes forget the simple power of the mind. We know the power of creating a strong vision for our business, but how often do we take the time to imagine accomplishing that vision. And how it feels.
Simple Pleasures
After spending a few hours at a kids park the other day, I thought it fully appropriate to stop for an ice cream on the way home. And sure, it breaks about a dozen rules, but Grampa can get away with it. From time to time.
Sienna wanted strawberry ice cream but the only ice cream available was soft ice cream. So a strawberry blizzard – tiny sized was just what was called for. The look of sheer delight with every spoonful was inspiring. She savoured every one. And when she was done, she drank the last few drops of melted ice cream from the cup.
I ordered the strawberry sundae, and like Sienna, I too savoured every spoonful.
Sing Sing Sing
Sienna loves to sing. When she’s happy, she sings along with the TV, or she’ll sing in the car, or when she’s playing with her toys. She’ll sing a silly kids song, she loves Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, or she’’ make up a song as she sings it.
We have forgotten the power of the simplest of sound tools – our own voice. Feel good hormones like Oxytocin are released whenever we sing or play music together.
I remember Sharon telling me that after one of her healing sessions, her client told her that she sang the entire next day, and that she hadn’t sung in years. How many of us hold back because we feel that it’s not good enough? Or because someone in our past criticized our song?
I’m going to play – you can play too Grampa
Everything can be a game. And Sienna loves to play games. She loves her puzzles, and playing with her train, or building space ships with Lego. Even putting away her toys can be converted into a game.
With everything that we feel that we have to accomplish in a day, all the tasks that need to be done, we often forget to play, and to have fun. Even things that we don’t like doing, like putting away our toys can be reframed into a game.
Olives smell like purple.
We ordered out for pizzas last night. One of them was a Greek-vegetarian, which came with olives.
A three year old is in a constant state of learning, taking in everything around them, and attempting to understand it. Now I always knew that a 3 year olds reality was a little different than mine. And when faced with something new, she simply created her own interpretation of it, based on her past experiences. – in this case, the olives which she declared smelled like purple.
This is a fascinating lesson, because when we hear a statement from someone, we tend to listen from our frame of reference, but instead, we need to listen from the context of the speaker, and their past experience. Only then can we discern the true meaning of what they are saying.
Simple Innocence
A 3 year old has no preconceptions. There is no modesty – she’ll run around wearing only her towel as a cape after her bath, she’ll tell it like it is – “no Grampa, that’s not right”, and there’s absolutely no ego. She’s proud when she succeeds, and she’s quite fine when she fails. There is no judgement, no getting down on herself, just a simply “oh well, Grampa” .
I have a coin that says ‘Success’ on one side and ‘Failure’ on the other. They truly are two sides of the same coin, and both are fleeting. So enjoy, and celebrate your successes, but don’t get hung up of failures. No need to judge. Sort out why, and then move on.
So that was what I learned this time. I wonder how much she’ll have to teach me on our next visit.