Something for my Kids

One day, while Emma was still a baby, I had thoughts rolling around my head, and I typed them out on a note in my phone. I'd forgotten about that note until recently. This is what it said:

My Dear One,

You are loved. Your smile and your laugh bring light into this world, and you are here for a reason.

One day you will learn to walk, but part of that lesson is the fall. You’ll teeter, you’ll trip, your legs might just quit on you, and you’ll be on the ground. Maybe, for a while, you’ll stick to crawling because it feels safer, but then, someday, you will get it! You won’t fall as much, and you will love walking.

Then you’ll get bigger, smarter, older…

You will have great friends, decent friends, and friends you’ll find out later weren’t really the friends you had hoped. Love them all. Keep as many as you can but be okay if it’s time to say goodbye.

So many people will be happy with you! And others might be mad or sad because of you. You will learn to say, “I’m sorry”, and you will learn to say, “I forgive you.” Both are important.

You will also learn to say, “I forgive you, but I can’t let you hurt me anymore.” And that is important, too.

You’ll get scared, so scared, and you’ll feel sick to your stomach. But you’ll be brave, so brave, by facing those fears. And when you don’t, it’s okay. You can try again.

You’ll be excited, you’ll be bored. You’ll have heartbreaks and dreams come true. You will achieve wonderful things…except when you don’t because some days are like that. You’ll win and you’ll lose. You’ll be grateful for the successes, you will hurt from the failures, but you’ll learn from it all.

You’ll feel beautiful, you’ll feel ugly, you’ll be adventurous, and you’ll have days when you don’t want to leave your bed. Simple things will feel challenging. Hard things will feel impossible. But then you will realize that you’ve got this! You are capable! But you aren’t perfect. You have weaknesses. You can’t do everything.

But what you can do is wonderful.

You will walk. And you will fall. You might decide to crawl again for a while. It feels safer. But then you will get up and find your feet again.

Not everyone will see how special you are, not everyone will support you, and not everyone will appreciate you. But I promise there will always be someone who does, and, dear one, here’s the truth: That someone can even be you.