Words of Inspiration
A few weeks ago, one of our residents — a cute little kindergartener — was too sick to go to school. Fortunately, she wasn’t too sick to play with Legos in the lobby of our offices, which was what she was doing when I decided it looked like fun.
So I joined her in building a school and a playground. And it was a blast for both of us. I could tell she enjoyed having someone to play with since all her buddies were in school that day. She kept finding more and more jobs for me to do so I’d remain tethered to the task at hand rather than being distracted by all that silly grown-up stuff (like work, for instance). Sensing that I was being pulled in further and further, I began to try to extricate myself gently from our playdate. When she assigned me the task of building a set of monkey bars, I told her that I wasn’t very good at building monkey bars, and that maybe she should build them. (I planned to escape while she was engaged in the construction process.)
“OK,” she said, and started to work. And then, without looking up from her monkey bar project, she said:
“I want to tell you something: Don’t ever give up on yourself.”
I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. It was comical to hear such big advice coming from such a small fry. My co-worker, Kim Stewart, witnessed the whole thing and was really amused by it, too. But at the same time, I wanted to cry.
I don’t know the details of this little girl’s life, except that I know she’s already endured far more pain and suffering in her five years than I have in my thirty-six. But I’m sure somebody somewhere has given her that advice at least once in her brief life.
Think about that: A five-year-old who’s already given up on herself. A child who’s survived familial dysfunction so severe she can’t be with that family anymore. A child beaten down by the world before she’s old enough to write her name.
Yet she took the advice to heart and committed it to memory. This tyke hasn’t given up on herself. And if she hasn’t — given all that’s been dumped on her to this point — then surely you and I can cope with whatever comes our way. Right?
Have a great day! (And don’t ever give up on yourself.)
