I was beyond excited as my daughter took the green smoothie I’d just made. Over the last week she had been drinking them with true pleasure instead of closing her eyes and making a face. It’s not that she doesn’t like the taste, it is the mere sight of something GREEN in the drink that forces her to rebel and make noises as if she were dying. You would think I was forcing her to drink poison. LOL
Today, she was sitting on the couch so as I handed her the drink I headed back into the kitchen for cleanup. Within about a minute I heard the dreaded thunk sound and then, “uh,oh!” I didn’t know whether to turn around or keep heading out the door because I knew when I looked back I was going to see that a giant green bomb had exploded all over my area rug. In that moment, I felt frozen because a flood of feeling was taking over.
A scream was just about to break free of my mouth and suddenly, in a flash, I caught it. As I walked over to the rug it was covered in green. Boy, did I have to work with myself, in that moment. I breathed, I immediately got cloths, and I told my daughter we were both ok and it was just an accident. She kept apologizing and ran to get more cloths. In that moment, I saw my tendency to make it worse than it was, think that it was ruined forever and want to give up.
Instead, I used the moment to shift my energy toward what I did want. I wanted a clean rug, a happy daughter, to be ok with “what is”. As my energy shifted, so did my daughter’s. We realized the green goo had even flown under the couch. She suggested that while we were cleaning how about re-arranging the room. She wanted to see what the couch looked like across the room.
Next thing I know, we were involved in cleaning the rug, moving the furniture and having a great time doing it together. While we were at it, we decided to clean the whole room so the new arrangement would look better.
When we finished I told her how cool it was that a huge green bomb and a perceived mistake could turn into such a great experience. At that point she told me that she had been wanting to move that couch for a long time but had never told me. Then we both laughed and decided next time it might be easier to speak up than to drop a green bomb to get my attention.
This was a perfect example of going with the flow, instead of leaning into the resistance, which part of me really wanted to do. Guiding myself out of the choppy water allowed her to find her flow and we rode the wave together.
Practice: When your child makes a BIG mistake and you find yourself resisting “what is” and wanting it to be different, see if you can pause, slow down and embrace “what is”. Stay connected with your present moment experience and see where it leads you.
This is a great post. Its so easy to give into the WTF emotions instead of taking that breath and and just going with it. I have been finding myself taking that breath more often than not lately. Practice makes, well, almost perfect. 🙂
A couple weeks ago my 2 year old walked up to the couter where we had one of those 2.5 gallon plastic things of water with the spout. He was standing underneath it and proceded to pull open the spout. Water spewed out everywhere! All over the floor and all over him. Granted it was only water, but it was still a giant amount to mop up.My first reaction was anger, but then I saw the look of complete surprise and uh-oh on his face and just burst out laughing.
Amanda, I love your story! Talk about stepping back into the moment. Whew! Yep, walking through those emotions is a BIG step.
Such a beautiful post. I have a lot to learn from this as I catch myself getting very highly strung about things that **really don’t matter**. What a wonderful lesson for your daughter and thanks for sharing.
Thanks Mrs. Green…It is definitely a practice. Look forward to visiting your blog!
Good for you Leslie! Inspiring!
Thanks Olivia! I was thinking about it more and realized my initial response was definitely from the past. I was afraid I was getting into trouble. It took a while to settle back down and move into the truth that it was just a big spill and I didn’t want it to come between me and my daughter. Whew!
Leslie,
This is such a great post, at just the right time. I have an important conversation coming up that I would like to go one way, but fear going a different direction. This story was a great reminder for me to refocus my energy and focus on what I want to happen.
Shayna, Great to here you are using this in other areas of your life. How did it go?
You are so authentic Leslie! Thank you for sharing your life stories so we can all learn from your wisdom! We’ve had the green bomb explode on our carpet as well. We were able to settle into it’s an accident, it’s done, let’s see where we can go from here. Now… I’m loving the rearranging part of your story. Mine ended with being thoroughly impressed we got our light tan carpet back to the right color… and a reminder of being more mindful of our food and beverages.
Thanks Laura! Fun to see you here…. I’m just getting to your document and will Email soon.
What a great story!
April, Glad you liked it!