Everything happens for a reason even though…

Morning,

I’m a firm believer that everything in life happens for a reason. You might not know at that very moment just why things are occurring, you might not understand it for another week or year or decade or even three decades….but sometime in the future, the light is going to go zingo! in your head, and you’ll realize the true gifts that your otherwise agonizing problems had given you, ‘way back when.

I was reminded of this yesterday when one of my kids was at aikido. You see, there’s a slight issue of self-confidence involved; like me when I was that age, this particular child finds it difficult to be assertive and push back when necessary. So! I asked the sensei to get in her face and let her deal with the situation.

Now, this was very difficult for her to endure. As a matter of fact, she started crying even though she didn’t want to (again like me, she can’t stop such things – it just happens. She’s learning to work thru that). But the sensei gave her some extraordinarily good wisdom about standing up for herself and never letting herself get pushed around. It was a very draining experience…but one that really made my kid happy at the end.

I was witnessing this as it was happening, and I realized…gee, most other parents would say, leave my kid alone, she can’t handle it. But oh, how I wished when I was that age…that someone had taught me self-respect and reliance!! But instead, I was one of the most pathetic kids around back then….and it took me decades to turn into the wondrous person I am today.

Ever since becoming a parent, I made a promise to myself that my children would surpass me in every way, including self-confidence. I never want my kids to be a loser like I was!

And then it hit me with the force of an earthquake as I was standing there. This is one reason why I had the utter hell of school life that I did….it was so I’d have the knowledge to recognize potential problems in my own children…and take steps to resolve them before they got out of control.

32 years ago…that was. 32 years. 3+ decades. Wow. But with this experience of yesterday, I can honestly say….I’d go thru twice the agony again if I knew the benefits my own family would reap from it.

Gotta love guardian angels sometime.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – want some great aikido stuff? Consider: