LESSONS FROM A 3 YEAR OLD

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

This is me, Emeka on the Agegebrear Podcast. Haha, it's been a while, but here I am. I am back. I've been busy doing two other shows. One is called Sweet Dreams, the other one is called Morning Fire with God. I kind of fell off on this one, the Agegebray podcast, but here we are. Mm-hmm. Today we'll be talking about uh learning joy from a three-year-old, right? One of the most profound lessons I've been learning lately isn't from a book or a mentor or even life experience. It's from my three-year-old daughter. Honestly, it's been humbling if if I think about it. Every morning when I take her out to the car to drop her off at daycare, she does something I never used to notice. She looks up not at me, no. Not at the car, not at anything around her. She scans the sky looking for birds. The moment she spots one, her whole face lights up. Daddy! Birdie! Birdie, that's a birdie. I found a birdie. The joy, the joy on her face, it's just pure, undiluted. She gets so excited like she discovered something incredible. For me, like okay, a bird in the sky. For her, it's a moment of pure joy. She watches, and as the bird or birds start to fly away, she smiles, waves at them, and says, Bye Birdie. Okay. Meanwhile, me am standing there thinking about work, deadlines, responsibilities, and the next thing I have to do. Ah I'm always busy, I tell myself. Always, always busy. I remember the first time I took her to a car wash. She was terrified. Wow. She held very tightly to my hand, unsure of everything happening around her. The noise, the movement, the unknown. It happens to all of us. But this past weekend I told her we were going again, and I reassured her. Don't worry, I'll be right there with you. This time completely different. She watched everything with curiosity. Spinning brushes, the rushing water, the sound. Yeah Daddy, the brush, it's spinning around. It's spinning around. It's washing the car. Yeah, I'm not scared anymore. I'm not scared anymore. I'm a big girl now. I looked at her and like okay. Instead of fear, she felt wonder. In fact, she enjoyed it so much she demanded that we go again. I had to. I mean, why not? This morning something else happened. We pulled up to her daycare and there was a truck parked right beside us. And she just screamed with joy Daddy, that's a truck. It's a truck. She was so excited over a truck. When we got out, she waved and said hello truck. And the driver, he smiled, stepped down and waved back. And just like that, a simple moment turned into a connection. I exchanged greetings with the man and we chatted about kids and the things they find joy in. Even I couldn't help it. I'm like, hmm, okay. Just a simple hello. But it got me thinking, what if the real problem isn't that life gets harder as we grow older? What if that's not the problem? What if it's that we stop noticing the things that make life beautiful? Kids don't have more than we do. They just see more. They appreciate more. They find joy in places we've learned to ignore. Yeah, life is busy, life is demanding, life can be tough, but maybe just maybe there are still birdie moments all around us. Moments that can make us smile if we slow down enough to see them. So today, I'm choosing to learn from my daughter. I'm choosing to notice more. I'm choosing to appreciate more, to be present just a little more. Because happiness isn't always something you choose. Sometimes it's something you simply notice. Yeah. That's it. That's what I've learned. I've learned from my three-year-old. I have to pause and start noticing the simple things in life that make life truly beautiful. Thank you for listening. This is Uncle Pizza Emeka on the Agege Bird Podcast. Bye bye.