Working on Being the Boy Who Lived

We were all expecting Fall in South Florida to be such a joyful time of costumes and pumpkin patches, but doesn’t it just seem like the world is out to steal our joy? Between the hurricanes ruining everything around us, disaster reliefs, people’s opinions of disaster reliefs, horrific events at concerts, political discord, doctor’s bad reports of friend’s or family’s illnesses, potential surgeries hanging over us, everything seems to be trying to put a hitch in our giddiup (to quote Sheriff Callie’s Wild West).  Yet while I was still reflecting on these things (read: scrolling through facebook), my daughter called out from her crib.  

“Mama! Apples!”

My 18 month old daughter is currently into the following three foods: black beans, vanilla flavored greek yogurt and apples. She won’t stand for anything else on her plate.  While the rest of us are donating to charities and fretting over this or that, our toddlers are developing personalities that will shape the future of our world. For this reason alone I am happy that it is October.  October brings with it an air of fancy, of creativity, of whimsie. It also brings with it Harry Potter marathons.

Have you caught one yet? I didn’t experience the Wizzarding World until I was in college because my childhood home was and is an anti-witchcraft one, and though I am unlikely to go out of my way to watch the movies, or re-read the novels, one thing does stick out to me.  The characters refer to Harry Potter as the “Boy who Lived.”  Turns out this kid survived a killing curse, and went on to conquer the scariest of all dark creatures.  He turned the fate of his world on its side by just living. That is inspiring. Yes he fought possessed teachers, and phantom creatures of all shapes and sizes, but much of the story has to do with how he lived life outside of these overarching incidents.  His first dance, his first sports match, his first kiss his first drink.  These precious moments of life happened despite the war going on around him.

What I draw from this is that while we as adults have responsibilities to our communities, our children are growing up and deserve our joy.  They have the right to be the boy who lived. They don’t need our anxious thoughts vented to them as if they were adults, they need playdates and costume parties.  Pumpkin decorating days and caramel apples.  They need to experience whimsie and wonder. And Mom, you know what?, you do too.  Jim Elliot once said, “Wherever you are be all there.” Our children deserve us to be present in their innocent childhood moments, and we deserve this too.  We deserve to laugh and cheer as they turn a comforter into a “magic carpet” in our livingroom, or as we walk into the livingroom to discover that they’ve made “fortresses” out of our sofa cushions. We deserve to feel joy when we cheer our sons on their first steps.  Fear and anxiety has no place in these moments, because these are moments of life. Those thoughts that steal our joy are only trying to rush us out of the moment, but fight to be in the moment. Let us enjoy our children. Let us live.

So as we walk through an uncertain October, let’s take our young children to the story times, the pumpkin patches, the costume parties. Let them be Maid Marion and Robin hood, because as C. S. Lewis says, “Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.”

This month to give my daughter a joyful month we are going to do the following three things:

1. Go to one of the Barnes and Noble storytimes. Many of the storytellers at the various Palm Beach County Barnes & Nobles are quite excellent at engaging the kids in their stories, and they often hand out cookies or art projects after.

2. Have a fall carnival with her church friends on the fifth Sunday of the month.

3. Dress her up as Batgirl and help her hand out candy to our neighbors

 

This month to live in the moment myself I’m going to:

 

1. Finally sit down and watch the first HP movie. I’ve never seen that one.

2. Get a pedicure.  I almost didn’t write this because it sounds so superficial in these moments we are living in, but really the point is to laugh in the face of evil by living.

3. Go on a date with my husband, one where we don’t talk about world events, but we simply enjoy Palm Beach.  

Do you need more ideas for what to do this month with your littles? Palm Beach Blog Moms has a few ideas here.