the children are waiting
I have brought my kids into this world with all intentions of giving them the best life I possibly can. Of course, there were always going to be obstacles. I am not so naïve as to believe otherwise. I signed up to motherhood with no crystal ball, no safety net and ALL of my own unturned stones. Challenges, for sure, abound.
But did I underestimate the magnitude of challenges in raising babies in such a time as this?
I believe so.
As it turns out, the world is a big stinking mess.
As it turns out, political governance, agenda and many social systems do not align with the way I parent my children.
As it turns out, mothers everywhere, are approaching their tolerance of it all because honestly? we did not sign up for this shit.
In the melting pot of chaos-now-deemed-daily-life, it is our children who are the voiceless, the swept-up, the ones we like to assume ‘resilient’ because it momentarily alleviates the guilt. All the while, it is the adults who toss around their projections, fears, unaddressed trauma + inflated egos like a shitty game of dodgeball.
Like there is all the time in the world.
The metamorphosis from child to adult is dangerously subtle. For the child, there is no rule book, no manual and for most, no rite of passage. Kids arrive at adulthood armed with whatever privileges they’ve inherited along the way, as well as whatever they’ve spent their lives witnessing to date.
So, if the narrative we knew as a child was to keep quiet, stick to the rules, dismiss our intuition, avoid risk, avoid ostracization, play along, be numb, disassociate, eat what we are spoon-fed and never critically think … then there is a good chance we’ll arrive at adulthood replicating these very same things.
Just with a bigger shoe size.
A revolution is no radio announcement that declares ‘the war is over!’. It is a series of tiny individual everyday triumphs that happen when we choose to r e a l l y look at ourselves and all the stuff we arrive with. The real leaders of this world are not the politically appointed, but the riskers, visionaries, black sheep + the ones who were not broken by life but softened by it.
In the absence of our accountability, a grim future awaits for our kids.
ANYONE can abuse and reject another with a different belief.
ANYONE can blame and shame.
ANYONE can find ways to reaffirm what they want to believe.
ANYONE can find ways to label, categorize and dehumanize others.
ANYONE can find comfort and safety in immobilisation + silence + numbness.
What does takes courage, is to go a little deeper.
Because the REAL work is in our curiosity. It is in our ability to see through the words that are said, into the actions that are taken. The REAL work is in loving + accepting another regardless of their choice, even if it feels risky or threatens our ego. The REAL work is breaking toxic ancestral patterns. The REAL work is to act in a way that we’d want our children to act. The REAL work is knowing right from wrong, not because it is law but because we are morally guided there.
If ever there was a time for overwhelm, immobilisation and fear, IT IS NOT NOW. Every word we speak, every action we take, every choice we make, let it be for the babies and the future that rolls before them. Because the kids are not yet able to make their own choices but will be 100% responsible for (and burdened by) cleaning up the remnants of ours.
Our responsibility as adults is not solely to manage + maintain the current world - but to CONTRIBUTE to its ripening, evolution and reform.
Our children will not remember us for being the winners of an argument but for being BRAVE. They’ll be proud that we brought nuance + curiosity to conversations even when it was awkward as fuck. Our children will not remember us for our compliance, they will remember us for our CREATIVITY. We do not inspire them by the actions that keep us small + safe, we inspire them with our will, voice and vision. By our guts.
Our children need us to PARTICIPATE in the cultivation of a more beautiful, loving and sustainable earth. They need us to do our work and level up as ADULTS who are capable of compassion, self-regulation and courage.
No one loves our babies more than us. They need us. We are the creators of what is to come.
It is time to grow up.
The children are waiting for us.
❤️
