Christmas has a way of knocking the wind out of your sails. We spend weeks, if not months trying to navigate the tempest waters of giant shopping malls looking for the perfect gift. As you wrap the gift, you wonder if you'll be spot on, or if you have just sank the ship. For what seems like a short window of time in our kids' lives, parents have the ability to equip them with dream-makers. We have the ability to plant a seed in our kids' minds. We are the facilitators of their success. Then, the job comes upon themselves to make their own dreams come true. Every good dreamer needs a starter kit, and that's what a gift should be all about.
Kate's dream-maker kit started in Best Buy. I walked down the aisle expecting to gaze upon some techie toy when I stopped in my tracks to see a Gibson starter-guitar. Could this be my girl's dream-maker? Perhaps this instrument had the potential to bring my inward-looking girl out for the world to see. It hadn't come to me until now that the girl who sings all day needed an instrument to accompany her sweet voice. Without any research I plunked down $100 bucks for her first dream-maker and had no regrets. Since Christmas, she hasn't put down her dream-maker. Youtube would become her first teacher, helping her find her first chords. It's still too early to see where this will go, but the seed seems to have sprouted into a seedling. Peter's situation is somewhat different. He had already received his first dream-maker when he was only 8 . I picked up a used child's racing bike on consignment. Since he couldn't reach the handle bars, he looked at it for more than a year as it hung from the rafters of the garage. Every month or so he would pull it down to see if he could reach the shifters. Finally two summers ago, his world changed as he could finally ride the machine. Jump ahead 2 years, his dream-maker was already a seedling. While browsing Newington Bike Shop in mid-November, I would spot his "phase 2" dream-maker. Once again he is reaching for those shifters, wondering of his own potential. My husband recalls how as a child, he received his own dream-maker when he was around 10. On Christmas morning, he came upon an Alden rowing shell that stretched across his living-room. Eventually he would fulfill his dreams and become a champion rower ( and because of the sport he would meet his dream-maker wife (ha ha!) ). Nothing seems more important in parenting than seeing our own children's real potential. While we cant ensure our kids' dream-makers will see them through, the least we can do is believe that it's possible. Every dream has to start somewhere.
2 Comments
Lili
12/28/2012 02:02:19 am
Jenn,
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Sue VanDerzee
12/28/2012 02:19:12 am
Lovely!
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