“Crying what I do is me; for that I came.”
Gerard Manley Hopkins, “As Kingfishers Catch Fires”
Your child is very much like an acorn, which is the seed of the mighty oak tree. While sharing common characteristics, each is utterly unique, destined to be who they are, eager to move into why they came.
Acorns become oaks, never birches or maples. Under the right circumstances, they grow into their most magnificent selves. Under trying circumstances, they do not grow into their ideal selves, though no matter what they will still grow toward the light.
Parents play the crucial roles of grounding cord and stabilizer, of nurturer and guardian, and most importantly, as mirror to reflect their child in the child’s highest light. But social convention and a superficial definition of success often paralyzes us parents into believing that our real job is to ‘civilize’ children and so enchain them, and we sometimes work to turn them into other things that may seem more desirable to the culture. Birches, after all, contain aspirin in their bark and thereby relieve human pain (doctors). Sugar maples produce a delicious kind of sugar that makes people happy (entertainers). It’s tempting to want these kinds of individuals in the family.
But chances are, your child is an oak, with a million different offerings, and on some level they want to run and scream weeeeeeeeeeeeee, reveling in themselves. Pay careful attention to who your young oak truly is and don’t mess with perfection.
How can you nurture your little acorn today?