Children are great teachers. Our granddaughter Jager has just arrived for a long summer visit. She’s come before on her own and stayed with us and has always been very brave about it. In the past she has preferred to sleep on the sofa right outside of our bedroom, a light on, within earshot.
Last night she decided she was ready to sleep alone in her room upstairs. We moved her clothes and toys up two flights of stairs, (we sleep in the basement), made her bed, and talked about the no dogs and cats allowed rule. Two stories later, one of which she read to me, Jager was all tucked in.
She said her prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Guide me safely through the night and wake me with the morning light.” Then she asked blessings upon those who are important to her. It was a long list of names, a couple repeated, including our dogs, her dogs, her sister’s cat and her auntie’s cat.
“A lot of people love you!” I told her when she finished.
She asked me to stay with her until she fell asleep, and said she thought maybe it would be better to go down to the couch after all. I sang five choruses of “Go to Sleep Now My Pumpkin”, two of “Baby Mine”, what I can remember from the lullaby in Mary Poppins and ended by humming Brahms for about ten minutes. Her eyes drooped. She rolled over, her stuffed dog Mackenzie in her arms, and fell asleep. Start to finish, an hour and a half.
This morning when she appeared in the kitchen, she was all smiles. Her Papa Keith and I congratulated her and asked her how it was to sleep in her own room. “Awesome!” she told us. She thinks she’ll try to make it through the night again tonight. I told her she should be really proud of herself.
Today I did a Tarot reading for a woman who told me later about recently recovering from an illness. It has been a few months and she wanted to know how she’s doing, if she has a chance regain her health. The first card I drew was the Child of Air card. In the Gaian Tarot deck that I use, the picture is of a beautiful child surrounded by butterflies. As we talked what came clear to me is that she is learning to love and nurture the child inside of herself. I told her that as long as she remembers that child and treats it as you would any child that you love unconditionally, she will be fine. The key is patience, support, gentle care and lots of love. I thought about Jager and how easy she is to love and care for, partly because you can practically see her soaking that love in, like a flower in good soil, after the rain, being warmed by the sun.
When we remember the courage of that inner child, remember that sometimes that courage only needs a few verses of a soothing song and a long prayer to get us through the night, we all have the potential to overcome the hard things in our lives. Be gentle with yourself. Set goals and expectations for yourself, but don’t insist or threaten. For all the big scary adult things we need to do in our lives requires courage, and the greatest source of courage is love.
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