Special Moments

I received this delightful note from a friend of mine about her teenage son.

By the way, my son is
doing very well.  The alternative high school program is working out well, and
he is doing great at his job.  His mood lightened up almost immediately.  He
actually asked me this weekend if I wanted to watch a movie with him, and we had
a good time together eating pizza in front of the
TV…

I love this part–"He actually asked me this weekend if I wanted to watch a movie with him, and we had a good time together eating pizza in front of the TV…"

This is a delightful example of one the special moments you can experience with your child or your students. The moment where you are invited into your child’s world, into his arena of values, preferences, and experiences. Here there is no generation gap. There is two people enjoying a shared experience, which is so much sweeter because Mom has stopped being "Mom" for the moment, and is being with her son.

Another beautiful part of this story is the invitation. An invitation from a child to enter and share their world is a great honor, and we need to perceive it as that. Not just anyone gets invited to watch a movie and eat pizza with this young man.

It is also a moment in which all barriers are down, and both people are simply being. You can sense in this mom’s note how much she treasured and realized the gift she was being given.

One of my favorite times as a mom was when my son Orion invited me into his secret fort. He was 5 or 6, and he led me down a skinny dirt path on our hands and knees through a thick stand of bushes. After several feet of crawling, we emerged into a small opening where we could sit and enjoy the cool place he had discovered.

I loved every moment of it, letting go of thoughts about getting dirty, encountering spiders, and damaging my clothes. I knew the profound specialness of this time, this sharing and this invitation. It still warms my heart to think of it. In retrospect, I wonder how he ever discovered this place, what that process was like for him. I treasure Orion’s love for me that he would share his "secret fort" with me.

The other cool thing about these special moments with your child is they lead to more. When you are entrusted with something special and you don’t blow it by being a "parent," more opportunities open up for you  and you are invited into more intimate places with your child. This is truly one of the magical blessings of being a parent.

Please share your special moments with your child. Simply click "Comments" below and share your story for others to read. Thanks!