Seven important lessons I learned from a one-and-a-half-year-old

The air is chirping, the smell of bread comes from the oven, the faces of everyone who see us light up. The greengrocer runs after us and offers a date, despite all the cost, and feed the baby the peels.” We are walking like this, standing still, as if it is full. This is the new rhythm of our life.

Our bag is slowly filling up with fruits, cookies, leaves and small toys… The attitude of the shopkeepers reminds me of those tiny temples in India that are in everyone's home. The temples where people leave coconuts, trinkets, palm leaves, and corn every morning despite the absence. Neighborhoods want to offer gifts to the life they see in my baby's eyes, to this amazing potential where a little child has a chance to be everything and everyone. This is actually a respect for my life. A daily homage to life.

We come home, jam in a ceramic bowl is like a mirror. I realize that I never took happiness seriously enough because they always tried to sell it to me for money. They had happiness opened, they wanted me to be happy as I drank, and they made order lists for a happier life. Happiness is overused, shriveled, and I didn't find it cool or deep enough and pushed it into a corner with the back of my hand. What a mistake. However, there are different layers under his commercials, just like the lungs opening, there is a situation where the parts that can be happy learn to let him go. The hazy mind surrendering to alcohol is like shards of glass obsessed with gravity. Nobody taught me happiness. But now I'm watching a 1.5 year old ball of light and I see:

1. Don't be afraid to take the first step

Every time we go to the playground, my 19-month-old master picks up a wad of leaves and gives them to everyone he sees in turn, as if he were handing out a brochure. Regardless of his age, those to whom he offers leaves either give him a new leaf, say a nice word or smile. How many friendships, how many laughs, how many beautiful leaves did I miss because I was afraid of rejection? Now I extend my leaves to those I catch my eye. Unfortunately, I cannot step into everyone, it is not possible to reach the level of my master for now. But keep learning.

2. If they take away the things you love

Taking a shower with a coffee thermos, bathing with a beanie, going to the park with a small painting hanging on the wall… Making a fuss when you can't do these and pretending that the world's turn depends on bathing with that coffee thermos are the methods my 1.5-year-old master often resorts to. I call them, “Actually, it's a good idea!” with the sentence “Do I have to set limits?” Although I watch with confusion between I hold on tighter to the things I love.

3. Again, again, again

Car, car, car, car. Woohoo, woof, woof. Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom. Give the object in your hand, take it, give it again, take it again. Repeat your mistake. Fall, get up, fall, get up. I realized that this is the rhythm of learning. It's always the same refrain until you learn it well. “Again?” Before I say, have some compassion for myself now.

4. Greet all dogs

Streets, parks, trees, crows, cats, winds are ours. The dogs are ours too. Every time the little sage sees a dog, he stops and waves to it. I realized that even the most aggressive-looking and vicious ones do not refuse your greeting. Being friendly with dogs is the key to living the streets, parks and life without fear. Hello then!

5. Shake your head if the music has started

Right, left, right, left. If there's music, it doesn't matter where you are, what you're doing, whether we're in a rush or not. It can also be in the middle of a crying crisis. If there is music, life starts all over again, the balances are re-established. The tale is told once again. Sometimes I dream that by shaking his head, life hits the "restart" button. Right, left, right, left. How easy it is to start over.

6. If you can't taste it, don't even trust your dad

The way to gain a new experience for my master is to put the object that interests him in his mouth, he does not feel himself connected with something that he cannot bite. Now in a new experience, I look at the taste it leaves in my mouth and decide whether I want to try it again.

7. Seduce them with your smile

Every day, he meets all kinds of people of all ages, all he does is smile at them. The heaviest doors are opened, the sulkiest faces are illuminated, the climate crisis is stopped, the economy is improving. For just one moment. Just smiling.

We are constantly thinking about what we will teach our children, what we will protect them from, what kind of home we will send them to. Meanwhile, we often don't realize that they just stand there with endless potential to learn the most important lessons of our lives. Perhaps we have misunderstood this fiction. In fact, they are the sages who come to shape us, and we are the students who must open themselves up to learning.

can't it? it can be.