Absolutely, my oldest daughter text messaging, posts, and video shows. Yes, she is acutely alert to when it is “time” to renew the wardrobe with a couple of new pieces from the current fashion trends. Yes, she often rolls her sight at my “weird” behaviors. And yes, friends are at the superior of her sharing list these days.
Certainly not what I experienced several years back (alright twenty-six years back to be exact) with the tender age of fourteen. Recently my daughter and I were discussing irrespective of whether she would attend, once again, some three week all girls’ camp for the fifth summer in a row.
Which includes a palpable gratitude for all for the opportunities and lessons learned from her previous camp experiences, she began to discuss her deeper thoughts on this subject and beyond. Your lady shared that while camp is touted as a place to be fully and authentically yourself, create a sisterhood, extend a connection to nature, and explore your core throughout contemplation and solitude, the point of it all is to arrive to understand that inner bond is available anywhere, anytime, a great number importantly in the NOW.
Yes, my daughter has her challenges, the woman’s snarky attitudes, her minutes of self-doubt. Yes, the girl can sometimes be mean to the girl’s siblings, sassy to the girl’s parents, generally ornery. Nevertheless, underneath it all are ever-expanding and deep cracks of self-awareness, self-love and true empathy for others that will serve but not only her, but the world in particular, quite well.
I was truly impressed by her expression of deep wisdom that has utilized many of us divorces, health diseases, and endless searches through different veins of the outside walls world to figure out. What my own dear girl was indicating through the example of summer camp–one of any possible outer examples–probably resonates with most of us when looked at tightly.
While we encouraged all of our children to try overnight camp at least once, we have told her that your decision to return is now definitely up to her. As that discussion ensued, I had become almost mesmerized by the woman’s capacity to articulate her vantage point on the subject.
The girl went on to give the model of seeing quite undoubtedly that she doesn’t will need to go anywhere specific (camp), do anything special (canoe) or be anything different (a camper) to come to feel authentic, open, connected and free. While she definitely views camp as a blessing, she knows that she is enough just as she is by means of or without camp to remind her of that intrinsic knowing.
She even voiced that the songs about sisterhood, respect, and caring, a large number of with a “free to be you” theme, seemed a bit funny to her now, providing that while appreciative in the sentiment, she hoped the fact that her fellow campers seemed free to be themselves further than the activities in nature, public cabins, and family dining. In short, everywhere.
She assured me that she was not “knocking” camp in any way and will choose to return, but any time she does go back to get another year or some, it would not be since camp experience allows the girl’s to feel more unique in any way. Her return may be based on the conscious, sole (soul) choice to attend considering she enJOYs the experience in no way because it is a “safe” method to be herself fully in the world.
We do not need to go somewhere special or do something unusual to live our own truth. Basically, freedom to be comfortable within our own skin should not be kept for places that we go to three weeks a year. Self-Love can be cultivated in all solutions, always.
Indeed, a typical teenager in so many ways, EXCEPT for underneath the North Face coat and the Ugg boots, in back of the gaggle of giddy girlfriends and the fluorescent video display, and even beyond our intimate family discussions and shared dinners, there lies a good self-awareness and interior starting that seems unfathomable for a child her age.
While some parents drive status, monetary reward and upward societal movement because of their children–none of which are negative per say–beyond those outdoor pursuits, my deepest heart’s desire for mine can be voiced most succinctly through Shakespeare, “To thine own personal be true. ” EnLIGHTenment at its best.
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