I was fortunate to spend 5 days of mother-daughter time at a cute little cottage in Michigan last week...just me, Jaime, and Baby J.! It was wonderful! I felt the baby kick for the first time, got to feel his little hiccups, and generally just relished our time together. While we were there, though, I noticed something that I can't stop thinking about. It was her hands. The first time I saw her hands, they were tiny little fists flailing about uncontrollably seconds after her birth. Later, they became the hands of a little gymnast--calloused, peeling, sometimes bleeding. Later still, when she was quite a bit older, her hands were those of a dancer...graceful and soft. But now...I watched her over and over as she rubbed her baby belly, soothing our little guy. Sometimes it seemed to be done consciously. Other times it seemed to be instinctual. Her hands are now the hands of a mother. It brought tears to my eyes.
This is going to be a long post, so fair warning. In the past 24 hours two seemingly unrelated events came together for me to experience a “big enlightenment.” In fact, it was so big I had to share. It began in a meeting for a college organization that I have facilitated for the past two years - a wonderful group of master teachers who share strategies for engaging students in the learning process. We watched a TEDx talk by professor John Boyer from Virginia Tech. (If you can find 14.49 minutes in your busy day I strongly recommend you watch.) His delivery style made me uncomfortable. His words inspired me. The second event happened last night. My daughter shared some more pictures of Wes. I’m sharing one of those here. This set of pictures affected me like none before. And that’s when I had the big enlightenment. Bear with me please. John Boyer speaks of inspiration and how we have lost that ingredient of education through the constant focus on standardization of learning objectives...
I also noticed this belly rubbing :) . I think when it really hit me was when we were at Ryan's parents house at the baby shower and she was sitting in one of the comfy chairs on the deck chatting and occasionally rubbing her belly. She was beautiful and glowing. Even though I still think of her as a 9 year old sometimes it was that moment when she went from woman to mother in my eyes.
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