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Are you brave enough to let your family be your guru?
“OM” SCHOOLED BY MY KIDS
When you know how to listen, everybody is your guru.
This takes discipline, and a willingness to let go of habitual reactions. Also, you have to be ready for that guru to show up uncomfortably close to home.
I’m remembering a time many years ago. I was tense and headstrong, buckling my seatbelt and gripping the steering wheel with my teeth clenched against the day, frantic with hurry. My daughter (all of thirteen at the time) sat in the passenger seat. We were doing last-minute shopping before her departure for boarding school. We’d been snapping at each other all morning.
When we got in the car, in an uncharacteristic moment of equanimity, she said to me quietly, “Mom. You’re confusing ‘a lot to do’ with ‘no time.’ We actually have plenty of time.”
Something in her voice came from outside the bickering we’d been engaged in. I’ll never forget it.
I could just as easily have barked back a lot of adult one-upmanship in reaction to her comment — but I decided to let it in, to really listen to what she was saying. And it was true. We had plenty of time. The world was spacious…
