reverb11 day 15: teacher

Today’s prompt asks: Sometimes we find teachers in the most unexpected places. Who surprised you as a teacher this year, and what did you learn?

So, this morning I woke up to a kiss on the cheek. It was Jane, who then told me, “Mommy, you’re my best friend.”

Seriously. How cute is that?

As much as Greg and I are responsible for guiding Jane through these first years of her life, she has absolutely been a teacher to me over the past four years. She teaches me to stop. Look around. Look at the trees, or the way the light is hitting a glass to create a rainbow, to notice the shapes of the clouds, to inspect a bug on the ground. And balloons! How amazing are balloons? When you are four, nearly everything is worth stopping for, taking a moment for, and marveling over.

I’m a rusher. Rush rush rush, busy busy busy. It’s just the type of person I’ve grown into, and really, I’m mostly OK with that. In just being the typical, inquisitive four-year-old that she is, Jane has slowed me down. She’s reminded me of life’s daily magic. It’s there, and has been there, all this time – but we forget. We don’t look. Always on to the next thing, and thinking about the thing after that.

Kids are great that way. They demand that you stop – even when you don’t want to, or think you don’t have time to. They insist you take notice. Appreciate. Investigate. Enjoy.

This past Saturday morning, I was running around my house like a lunatic. I had overslept from staying out late after the show the night before, plus I had a show that night, a birthday party in the afternoon, and I needed to drag Jane to the mall to buy a present for said birthday party. At one point, however, Jane decided she had to do my hair. “Like a princess,” she said. So I found myself sitting on my bathroom floor, Jane mangling and tangling my hair, and taking a minute to just breathe. It was exactly what I needed.

To put it simply: Jane teaches me to not just rush through life - but to notice and find joy in the details.