Reverb #'s 4 & 5

I am sure I am not supposed to be doing like....three at a time, but I have this sense of urgency to catch up since it just turned into the new year! How can i make a new year's resolution if i haven't reflected on the last one? how over-achievingly perfectionist am i? next up....

December 4 – Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (Author: Jeffrey Davis)

Hmm well ok so this is going to sound a little goofy, i think, but it's true. When I was younger, I was good with kids. Like...kids LOVED me and everyone said I should be a teacher and then I did a teaching thing and found out really fast that I was NOT a good teacher. At least not a natural. Fast forward, i dunno, ten years and I have gone through all this personal life stuff, including turmoil over not having kids and my brothers having kids but I'm not and so then i kind of avoid kids and then i get over the whole thing and I have this thought of, "I am not good with kids anymore, I'm going to do stuff with kids."

I guess I wanted to reconnect with something good about my old self. So...

I signed up to do kid's church once a month at my church :) It was good times and I enjoyed it immensely. I dunno that I was the best teacher ever, but i know i changed from the beginning to the end. I improved, felt more comfortable, and took some pride in being able to entertain 10-14 pre-k kiddos for an hour and half. 

So to answer the question, HOW I did that was to approach it from a sense of enjoying seeing things through they're eyes and allowing myself to learn from them. Not seeing myself so much as the adult, although that is needed to help them...but if you want to know how to have patience with kids, try just not thinking so high and mighty of yourself and empathize with them a little. Its more fun, at least with sunday school.

December 5 – Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why? (Author: Alice Bradley)

Wow, well, i think i let go of more this year than I ever have in any other year that i can think of. Especially people though. I thought there was this group I wanted to be a part of. And I was wrong, so I let that go. More so, my husband and I let go of the place we grew up and had roots. We moved to a whole new state, let go of conventional wisdom to do what we felt led to do, and it has worked out for the better so far. Things are still changing, but I don't regret the move. And I don't regret the letting go.