Distance Brings Clarity

Occasionally watching your children from afar allows you to view them with greater clarity.  Like holding someone at arms length before drawing them nearer for an embrace, you get the chance to regard them more fully -- perhaps, more accurately -- than when they're too close.  The distance brings clarity.

When you have young children, the lens of observation always feels close.  Supervision is constant, engagement is incessant, guidance is ongoing.

Stepping back, as I did this weekend when my oldest daughter performed in a dance recital and a church Christmas pageant, afforded moments to observe her from a distance.  Not from my typically close vantage point -- the view so close that it magnifies the small blemishes in her behavior or temperament -- but the vantage point that gives her space, that lets her grow, that sees her for who she is becoming.

Look at that child out there -- that girl!  Look at that poise, that bravery, those abilities.  She's out there for everyone to see, and I see her.  I really see her.


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3 comments

  1. I would love to step back and take a look at my little Paige, she is so attached to me right now I can barely breathe. I am hoping this passes soon. I am in constant awe of how gracefully you handle three while I feel like I am going to pieces with 2. Keep up the good work.

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  2. Jaime, first of all, you're a great mother, and you're still in the throes of having a little bitty one! Never easy! Trust me, I am not as graceful as you might give me credit for, but I'm certainly trying to rely on grace.

    Thank you so much for your kind words. Keep up the good work, too!

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  3. Such a wise observation. Sometimes when I know I am being overly nit-picky I have to force myself to step back and look at the bigger picture of what my child is. It's not easy for me to do.

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