I spent Saturday with my youngest granddaughter. She’s 18 months old. I had forgotten how fascinated children are at this age with everything they do. We spent the day playing together. I spent a good deal of time observing the wonder that she is as she experienced the wonder of herself in everything she did.

It was a gorgeous sunny day and we sat out on the front steps together. First, she followed my lead and took a seat next to me. She started moving her feet and I’d move mine and she’d giggle with joy. She spent hours practicing climbing the stairs – up and down. Sometimes using the railing for balance, other times reaching out for my hand, and once in a while scooting on her bottom. She’d lose her footing from time to time, and I could see her mind intently calculate how to deliberately make her next move. She’d reach the top excited at her success and then start down again.

I’ve been contemplating the wonder of it all and wondering how we, in our adulting, have forgotten that everything is practice. We’ve forgotten the joy of trying something new out of fear that we won’t be good enough or we won’t do it perfectly. We tell ourselves that someday we’ll travel or quit the job we hate or move somewhere warm, yet we stay in hiding. We fear making the wrong choice so we make none at all. Have you ever wondered about that. About the possibility that no choice, that not taking the first step, is really the wrong choice?

What are you putting off, hiding from, or afraid to try? Just for today, what if you approach that thing with a childlike confidence and curiosity? Are you willing to see it as child’s play – a journey of discovering more about yourself in each moment?

My invitation to you today is to be willing to try, to practice, to learn as a young child does. To…

• Trust yourself. Adopt a beginners mindset, one where doubt simply doesn’t exist.
• When you feel uncertainty, pause and listen to your inner guidance. In a moment of pause my granddaughter was able to center herself and trust her inner guidance. In her exploration she knew exactly what to do next, and you do too.
• Reach out for someone’s hand when you need it. You don’t have to go it alone and it’s OK to ask for help. I think this is a difficult thing for most of us, but receiving completes the circle of giving and it’s important we know how to do both.
• Keep going. Learn to pause and breathe, to find your center, and take the next small step forward. Simple small steps lead to big change.

And, as young children do, embrace the joy and celebrate each small step along the way.

From my heart to yours.

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Love is Always the Answer

Join me for child-like self-discovery in Tuscany, Italy and Nurture Your Inner Goddess. October 7-14, 2018.

Photo by Vanessa Serpas on Unsplash