This is a bragging post about my toddler’s emotional intelligence. I don’t know if I’m doing something right here, but my 3-year-old does a fantastic job at noticing when I need a pick me up.
A few weeks ago, out of nowhere my son comes to me, gives a hug and says he’s proud of me. One of the many times I got to hear the words I didn’t know I needed. It was just a random moment. Now, I realize that he may also just be saying things he remembers or just repeating things I normally tell him but in that moment I didn’t care. He was proud of me and that was all that mattered to me.
2020 was a year of change. Almost everything that I had known practically collapsed and I had to start over, as 2021 is coming to an end, some things are about to change again and these changes have been waying heavily on my mind, this week especially.
So yesterday, after I had put him down to sleep and we were laying in bed, I was not necessarily sad, but I was in my own world, I had been the whole week. I was deep in my own thoughts when he just reached out to my face and in German he says, ist ok mama, ich bin doch da, meaning It’s ok mummy, I’m here. Then he casually turned to his face away from me and at some point, he fell asleep. But he didn’t say anything else to me after those words.
At that point, I literally cried me a river. Even though, he can’t do much, he let me know that he was there for me. The fact that he articulated it meant everything to me because these are words that we most times don’t get to hear. Yes, you may be aware that friends, family and lovers are there for you but as adults we get so caught up in our own world, facing our own responsibilities and fighting our own battles that we sometimes forget to let our loved ones know that we love them and that we are there for them. We assume they know our feelings.
I don’t know how these changes that are coming are going to affect us, but I know for a fact that it’s just him and I through thick and thin. Ok that sounds a bit dramatic, but you know what I mean.
After crying me a river, I went on my knees, I prayed about everything that had been on my mind. I listened to my son’s heartbeat reminding myself that no matter what happened, I had survived everything that I had been through and that I would do the same with everything that is coming. I reminded myself that I had come this far not just to come this far.
Sometimes you become so attached to people that you forget that the actual power is within you.
I don’t know what you’re going through, but we will all get through it. I’m rooting for all of us! So, here’s a little pick me up, Life is tough but so are you darling. And if you’re reading this, it means that you’ve survived 100% of your bad days, go crush some more and come out victorious on the other side because I am rooting for you. You are not alone. I love you; God loves you, he didn’t bring you this far just to bring you this far. You’re doing great. Just chin up and read Isaiah 41:10.
One day at a time 