I’m staring out the window of the HySoS office into the courtyard and atrium where I spend a good amount of time each week.

It is Earth Day and the weather in the Greater Seattle area is cooperating. It is a GLORIOUS day.

Blue skies. White clouds. Perfect breeze.

A clear view of the Olympics kept me company as I drove from home to the office due West.

A mother is seated on the bench in the courtyard on a phone call while her little daughter of no more than four is bouncing about in the sunshine, her dark hair in long, wavy, and natural ringlets. Mom’s on the phone but staying mindful of her “sprite” staying out of the parking lot and calls her back once when she goes a little too far.

Her daughter in motion reminds me of the butterflies I watched dance and flit through the forest a few summers back while at a mountain cabin in Wenatchee for the weekend.

So much aliveness.

So much freedom of expression.

So much curiosity about the “bugs” crawling between the concrete!

Mom joins her daughter who has declared, “Look…!” and squats to peer closer at whatever it is that her daughter “spied” that captured her attention.

The way I see it from where I sit it looks like this:

Mom hears and sees her little girl.

She doesn’t ignore  the invitation to also look at the bug or whatever it is that captivates her daughter.

And this small act of acknowledgement makes the small child happy even more.

I get the distinct impression this child feels both safe and free and confident. I think I will make this my new personal and favorite definition for “Aliveness.”

The way I see it to cultivate and facilitate THAT in my CHILD and CHILDREN at large is my JOB/ROLE as a PARENT.

…and while it isn’t always easy to stay far enough away, while also being present and engaged, until I am wanted or needed by my own child…

It is my ability to do this very thing–to let her be herself at every age since her birth–that empowers her to develop Her Own REAL Sense of Self as it also helps me heal and nourish and SUSTAIN my own Restored Sense of Self.

To live our own life; that is a primary reason for our existence.

Can you say that you DO primarily live your own life?

Are you free to be your Self?

AND, did you feel “seen” by your parents enough that you stayed free and alive well past your young years?

We hope so.

And, if you didn’t get the kind of attention that allowed you to experiment with being different than your parents, we can help you RESTORE that child-like instinct to be just as you NATURALLY would be…

The courtyard is quiet again but the laughter and joy that was so much bigger than the little being generating it, is STILL in the air.

(P.S. I am feeling really grateful for the fact that one of our neighboring businesses is a photographer who specializes in Baby and Children’s Photography, and based on the number of canine kids I see in the atrium each week, I believe she photographs four-legged kiddos too!)