The Small guy and the Christmas Tree

I cracked up laughing this morning when Nicole shared her story about her two year old son, Oliver.

Here goes...

We've just had Christmas, right?

So Oliver's Gogo, Nicole's Mom, had the pleasure of putting up their Christmas tree with her beautiful little grandson. I can only imagine the excitement as the little guy experienced the shimmery tinsel and the magic of the Christmas lights for the very first time, well probably the first time of being conscious.
Nicole related that she took Oliver with her to fetch her sister from the airport and there in the middle of the terminal buildings was an enormous Christmas tree.
Oliver piped up: "Big Christmas tree, Mama. Gogo made it."

Apparently wherever they saw Christmas trees for the duration of the holidays Oliver delighted in the fact that his grandmother had created them all.

This simple and innocent message from the little guy had me thinking.

Isn't that just how we as adults relate to life? We have an experience and then we relate all future experiences to what we already have experienced and know. Our pasts act as a template by which we match and compare our futures.

We perceive and assume stuff and then it becomes the code by which we live. We are so easily influenced by our assumptions and perceptions which then become our conditioned responses which in turn become our culture which our ego informs us is cast in stone.

I thought back to a time when my sons were small and remember how when either of my boys had a temperature my mom-in-law would go into a state of panic because her daughter had landed up in a coma as a result of a high temperature. I remember too how scared my mother had made me of allowing my children to eat peanuts because she had witnessed a youngster dying because he had inhaled a single peanut and it had lodged in his lung.

I could go on and on with examples of how we create beliefs based upon our experiences, but what I think I am trying to say is this:

We need to stay open to life as it unfolds in the present without second guessing its every move. We need to sway to the rhythm of life's dance and be flexible to change tempo as life leads us. Yes, we did the tango yesterday, but let's embrace the Cha Cha of today and let's not try to guess what dance we'll do tomorrow. Let's be willing to just dance.

If we want to keep growing and evolving we need to open ourselves to unconditioned change. If we have to measure and match every new experience to something in our pasts we will continue to produce the same outcome and never learn anything new.

It's funny how as the human race we resist being open to new experiences with unknown outcomes, but that is the very catalyst for our growth. We like the safety of repeat experiences with expected outcomes because we feel unthreatened and safe, yet it is when life hurls us into a new dance and we have no resistance to it that we get to taste life. We risk feeling something unknown and new as opposed to serving up the same old hash.

So Oliver's little story challenged me to observe my thinking and catch myself when I assume to take the lead with life.

This week I am going to place myself in life's arms and follow her lead. And I'm as excited as a new born baby because I don't know whether I'll be tasting crepes or sushi but tasting I will be.

Have an awesome week ahead

love
Nicolette