This Monday morning, I dedicate a post to my daughter who has been instrumental in teaching us a quite a few life lessons. Three lessons stand out.
Avantika our daughter is the apple of our eyes. She is full of excitement, energy and is incessantly curious about the world around us. Of late, as she moves to grade 5, she is turning into a voracious reader. She gobbles up Enid Blyton fiction at the rate of – a book a day.
Recently, my wife was disturbed over something. Seeing her brooding, there came a gem from Avantika. She mentioned to my wife, “Why are you getting disturbed over others’ behaviour? They are behaving the way God is directing them. If they do something wrong, it must be God, the puppeteer who must be disturbed for he was the one tugging at their strings the wrong way. You are just another puppet in his hands. So stop worry unnecessarily”
It was quite amazing to hear something as profound as this from a 9 year old girl. It got me thinking about a lot of things children tend to teach us provided we keep our minds open. Here’s a post dedicated to my daughter.
Enjoy the Moment – Be mindful
Avantika tugged at my shirt and invited me to a game of ‘Jump-jump’ – a game she had invented 2 minutes back. I refused.
She pumped me up saying it is one of the best games she’s invented and it gives her a sense of flight. I refused again, saying I am tired.
She refuses to give up and says that this game drives away tiredness. I stopped giving excuses and joined her.
Kids live a big part of their lives in the present. They are the natural practitioners of ‘mindfulness’. Children find joy in a game they invent out of the blue at the bus stop while waiting for the bus.
They don’t harbour ill feelings about anybody in general. They enjoy every moment as it is handed over to them. This is one of their greatest strengths – living in the moment, savouring the moment to its fullest. It is a life lesson that we all must imbibe.
Express your happiness – don’t bottle it up
When happy, my daughter runs around,
As adults, we tone down the expression of emotions. Happiness too is expressed in a manner that is acceptable to the civilized society. Children do not restrain themselves when it comes to expressing happiness.
Often, we are so busy attending to the demand our fast-paced lives place on us, that we forget to express happiness or savour the feeling for a moment. This is definitely a life lesson we ought not to forget.
Show empathy to others
At bus stands, Avantika doles out biscuits to a needy dog. At home, she can spend an hour assuring our daschund Suzi not to worry and that Dad and Mom have stepped out for a brief while.
Kids are born with a soft side especially when they notice somebody hurt. They are naturally inclined to express sympathy and try to help. Adults and kids need to be taught to respect animals in case they are misguided.
In general, this sensitivity evaporates as we turn into adults. We ignore an animal in pain, a fellow human being suffering at the street corner. Most of the time, we are too preoccupied in our own little lives that we do not for a moment think of extending our help to someone in need of it.
We share this beautiful planet we call home with the other creatures whom God has put here. Though we may not be able to help each one of them, we can choose not to ignore the ones we see suffering in pain and need. A life lesson that keeps humanity in us alive.
Worth reading…. and a true experience…but always ignored from parents.. .
Thank you Dr. Pallavi. Very true. We parents tend to ignore the lessons that our kids teach us even though it comes from their innocence.
Sir I haven’t get mutch time to read something in FB,after reading your thoughts it feels that we can actually learnt many things from our regular life,and we can share it ,as an artist remember by sketching the movement same like that we can write and freezing the good times here by writing and posting,
Thank you
Very true madam, You can start off by sharing things you draw and paint on FB. There are also online websites that can help expose your talent to a wider audience. Getting started on FB could be the first step.