criss cross applesauce
When my youngest was very little, she had this habit of 'criss crossing' family members when she was upset with them.
Imagine if you will...
a fiery little three year old
red faced with fury
foaming at the mouth
staring you down
with steely blue eyes...
and then
methodically
yet dramatically
jabbing her little finger in the air
at YOU
followed immediately by the execution of an exaggerated 'X' sign.
That, my friend,
is a 'criss cross' - a not infrequently used gesture which succinctly and symbolically indicated my daughter's anger and disapproval...of whomever she deemed worthy of said gesture.
While we recognized that,
in that moment in time,
my daughter was very serious about her feelings...
it was nigh impossible for us to take any of it either too seriously or too personally.
You see,
in the midst of her demonstrative displeasure, we understood something that perhaps she did not.
We understood that...
in that moment
she was simply caught up in her own little thought storm...
one that seemed very real to her...
and one that filled her with a tremendous amount of emotion.
We also understood that,
like all storms...
it would pass.
And so, we waited them out
firm in the knowledge that her newest storm would pass
and any perceived infraction would be forgiven
as new thought and new emotion emerged.
What is fascinating to me is how effortlessly and intuitively we trusted that her thinking and her mood would shift.
We saw so clearly that she was simply experiencing a mood
brought on by her thinking
come to life by her emotion
in a moment in time.
As a result, none of her actions, in that moment, were taken too seriously or too personally.
We knew she would return to 'home base'...
a place of well-being, love and irrepressible joy for life...
a place that resides within all of us.
And yet...
as adults,
how often do we forget that...
we are only ever feeling our thinking...
each moment in time
and perhaps it does not need to be taken
so seriously
or
so personally
since
moods shift and lift
allowing
new thought to emerge
returning us
again and again
to
'home base'
our natural state of
love and well-being and joy for life.
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