This morning Nora ran over to me from across the room. She had a look on her face that implied, “Wait don’t leave yet, I forgot to tell you something”.
Already running behind schedule I stopped and knelt down so that I could be eye level with her.
With the biggest smile on her face she reached her arms out and hugged me. Now to some this may seem typical but what you don’t know is that my Nora is a very busy little girl and rarely does she stop what she’s doing to just give me a hug.
As she gave me a hug she turned her head to the side and placed her face on my chest right over my heart.
What got me was when she took both of her little hands and squeezed my arm. She held this position for a solid 60 seconds. Then looked at me again and ran off to play.
What she didn’t know was I needed that more than she could ever imagine. Last night I tossed and turned because I wasn’t feeling well and I was running behind schedule and extremely tired.
I usually start my day around 530-630 AM depending on the agenda for the day. Usually I don’t get to spend much time with them in the morning during the week.
After giving this mornings interaction some thought I couldn’t help but realize that although our children don’t know everything, they do know love and compassion. Love and compassion is not something that needs to be taught but is something that we’re all born with.
The same way we’re all born with the ability to breathe and the desire to be loved, we are all born with the ability to give love and compassion.
Whether Nora knows it or not she taught me something this morning. She taught me the importance of stopping what you are doing and providing love and compassion for someone even when you do not fully understand the impact it has on their life.
We can always learn something from someone no matter the age.
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