The inevitable excitement of a new school year is starting to bubble up in me. Picking out school clothes, binders, folders, lunch bags, and backpacks. There's the somewhat naive but always enticing dream that this year will be good, amazing, free from the struggles of the year before. August is like the New Years holiday for kids and parents. Every thing is fresh, crisp, new, brimming with hope. New teachers, new classes, new seating charts, new friends. The glorious joy of imaginings of good. I love this time of year.
I think as human beings we actually need the reset. We need the fresh and the new. We need the break of one cycle and the new beginning of the next. Our days on earth are designed this way on purpose. The sun goes down, we fall asleep, and the sunrise brings a bright new day. Yesterday is over. The new day has come. New is good. We get to be better today than we were yesterday. We get learn from our mistakes, say what we wish we had, bite our tongue where we feel the pains of regret, and make choices that get us closer to our real goals.
I see this optimism in my girls every year. Excitement and hope. That little tremble of nervous, but bright wide eyes, ready to take in this season's adventure. I find myself making list after list to ensure their preparedness. Dreaming of the fun they will have, the things they will learn, the ways they will grow. I want them to get to drink in this joy completely.
I believe joy is a necessary fuel to the human spirit. I believe joy is actually a substance human beings were designed to run on. This elation I see in them, though it may be naive at times, is actually a vital step to their success this year. We really do impact the experiences around us so powerfully by the attitude we bring with us. We ofcourse do not have control over the decisions of other people, but we always have control over how we decide to set our attitude in any given situation. When we allow ourselves to fully experience joy and excitement when it comes, we strengthen our ability to look for the good. We enable our eyes to be enlightened to the positive things around us. There will always be stress. There will always be hard things. But we get to choose what to focus on.
I get to pick whether the lists are going to overwhelm me, or excite me. I get to spur them on in imagining the best, or shut them down with stress and fear. Kids learn so much more from what they see and feel from us than what we say.
I want to be a parent who fully embraces joy so they feel permission and courage to do the same.
In these last weeks of summer, I want to encourage you, sit down and find the things worth being excited about, and when that joy feeling starts to bubble up inside, embrace it. Let the smile grow on your face. Let your imagination soar with all the possibilities of good.
Take the time to get your hopes up.
This world will thank you.
Your kids will thank you.
Your heart will thank you.