Let go and enjoy the ride!

We took our kids to six flags yesterday. Beautiful day. Perfect weather, not too hot but not too chilly. Short lines, if any. Sunshine and no rain. And if that wasn’t enough, we had friends join us so the kids could run in a pack. It’s amazing, the power of positive peer pressure to persuade a young child to try that new kiddy ride. 

Awesome. 

My kids are not the most physically brave kids in the universe. Blame it on the genetics from their mom’s side of the family. We have been working on teaching them to be braver and more adventurous. So far, it seems to be working. 

At one point, we rode the tea cups. As a younger person, I could have ridden the tea cups all day. I had a stomach of steel. As an adult, however, one ride is my limit. My stomach can only handle the spinning for a finite amount of time and it appears that my limit is the length of one ride. 

If you have never ridden the tea cups, or perhaps if you have never really thought about the engineering of how they work, let me lay it out for you. You sit in a round seat, decorated like a tea cup. It spins on a pole that has a circle on the top. Teenagers can use this circle as a steering wheel of sorts to haul the cup around in even faster circles, should they so choose. The typical five year old child, however, does not have the strength to stop the spinning by holding on to that steering wheel. They are dragged uncomfortably around as they attempt unsuccessfully to slow it all down. It’s not a fun experience. 

When the ride began, and the spinning began, my daughter grabbed on to the steering wheel. She hadn’t anticipated how fast the spinning would feel to her and she wanted to slow it down. Her eyes got wider and wider in despair as her attempts to control the spinning failed. She looked and me and yelled (over the noise of the ride) “mommy, it’s going too fast!” Without thinking, I reached over to her, took her hand, smiled and yelled back. “Take my hand. Let go of the wheel. Sit back and enjoy the ride!”

And she did. Instantly. She took my hand and held it. Shockingly, she wasn’t even gripping it, just holding it comfortably. She sat back, tucked up her legs to get comfy and looked around. She smiled serenely as her hair blew around her face.  At that particular moment, all I could think about was how beautiful she looked, calmly content in amongst all the chaos and movement.

 It’s the same gorgeous look my son had on his face while on the swings. You know… where they put you in your own little seat and turn the center so that all the swings fly around the carousel like center.  Many kids grin and giggle on those rides, but not my son. He gets calm in a way that is uncommon for him. He gets still and he is almost never still while awake. His face finds this beautiful resting position. His eyes open and alert, sparkling. His gaze on the beautiful view. His gorgeous little lips formed in a tiny up curl. His adorable, skinny little legs swinging in the breeze, free of tension or intentional movement. Being a very active little dude, this state of stillness is a beautiful sight for me. I took a mental photograph and stored it in my heart. 

I have always struggled with calm in a storm. I wasn’t raised in a way that would have infused this skill by nurture and I doubt that my nature would have taken to it easily anyways. I’ve gotten better at it over the years with intentional hard work, but I still have a ways to go. 

My kids, however, are not going to have that struggle. They are only 5 years old and they are already learning to let go and let life take them on a ride. They are already somewhat able to sit back and give up control of the steering wheel from time to time.  As their mom, this gives me a sense of accomplishment. After all, isn’t it really our ultimate goal in life to NOT pass on our own struggles to our children? 

I can’t wait to see where this skill will take them in life.