To let those we love be perfectly themselves…
My oldest and I have had about thirty minutes of alone time each morning the past couple weeks as I drive him to his new school for summer school classes. During that time, my normally quiet boy has become quiet talkative. I do love hearing his voice.
But… well… he only wants to talk about rare plants and rare animals and sometimes rare plants and animals he’s only found existing in Minecraft (but wishes they were also real).
Two days ago, he had me googling the rare “corpse” flower in the carpool line. It only flowers once every 4 to 10 years, and when it does, it emits a horrible odor- hence it’s nickname. The next day, we had to look up tarantulas and proceeded down a rabbit hole of rare and quite ugly spiders. He has an affinity for the rare things in life – maybe it’s because he’s such a rare treasure himself.
If you know anything about me – I’m not a pet person. I also have a habit of wanting plants but then neglecting them til they shrivel up and die (and they may also sit for weeks before I notice they’ve perished). So, needless to say – these are not my preferred choice of conversations.
But there’s something about seeing a person when they are truly living into who they are that makes me dive right in to smelly flowers and scary spiders. I don’t always do this well – but when I do… I get a peak into the God-given treasure of that person.
I put this quote on this drawing this morning thinking about those morning drives. But as I look at it longer, it has me also thinking that there is another layer to this quote.
Consider it this way: “The beginning of loving ourselves is the will to let ourselves be free to be ourselves…. Exactly as we were created to be.”
That is my prayer today.
