Lessons Learned

I stood there looking at my daughter - my Emme - through the hallway window at her preschool. I looked at all the other children at the table she was sitting at and wondered how was it that she was the only child with food still on her face from breakfast and her hair uncombed. We had, after all, done our morning routine of washing face and hands after breakfast. How had she missed her face? I know for a fact that I've taught her how to wash her face. I clearly didn't say - "take a washcloth on all the clean spots on your face" and yet somehow she always manages never to get her face completely clean. In fact, I'm fairly certain is was a great fear of my good friend, (Emme's Auntie Azeen) that Emme would walk down the isle as the flowergirl at her wedding with chocolate covering, albeit daintly, her face. Again - how is it that Emme can look into the mirror and miss the food on her face? Hadn't I taught her well enough? And then there's Matthew who no matter how many times I try to teach him to tie his shoes always seems to be running ... and then tripping ... over his laces. How is it that lessons like these are not learned quickly and accurately? After all - these are routine tasks, right? It took Nicholas no time at all to figure out how to scale the shelves of our pantry by using the box of garbage bags to give him more height. I certainly didn't teach him that. So why is it that simple tasks seem to take so long to master and then other things seem to come naturally?

There were only four fruit rollups left in the box. Matthew, Emme and Nicholas had asked for some for dessert and I told them it was alright for them to have some. A practice that somehow got started was the one fruit roll up was not enough - they needed two at each sitting. But, with three kids and only four fruit roll ups, I would need to change this practice. I would have better luck trying to change academics before trying to change this practice. So, I turned to Matthew and told him to pick another dessert because early that day he had taken two fruit rollups to the "Mad Science Club" for a snack. He lowered his head and agreed and in his ever so sensitive way settled on some whoppers from his Halloween bag. Emme and Nicholas sat there discussion the type of fruit roll ups they got - was it the Strawberry Burst or the Tropical Twist or the Grape Explosion? (or in Nicky terms: Red, Organge or Purple!). Trying to engage Matthew in the discussion, I asked what kinds he had for his snack. He said Tropical Twist. "What was the other one" Emme asked? And he says, "I don't know, I gave it to Jaxson. He didn't have snack." "Really, Matthew?" I asked. He says "yes, Jaxson's my friend and I didn't want him not to have anything." And at that moment, as I stood on the box of garbage bags to reach the very top shelf of the pantry for another box of fruit rollups so I could give Matthew his share, I realized we all learn lessons from each other. But it is those lessons that we don't think to teach, that are in fact learned by our hearts, and by our soul.