Keep in mind, the most challenging, independent children tend to be the ones who need the most intentional parental reconnection. Strong will = Stron… - L.R. Knost

Humanity is so confusing. We cover anguish with a smile, isolate ourselves when we feel lonely, and struggle in silence while insisting we're fine. What would the world be like, I wonder, if we all felt safe enough to share our hurts and fears and battles with others so we didn't feel so alone? The human experience is not so very different at its roots, after all, no matter where we live on this hope-filled, hurting planet. We all suffer. We all love. We're all afraid. We all hope and dream and try and fail and try again...and again. And we all need to be heard and understood and appreciated. What if we tried being honest for a change? What if we shared our deepest pain and hardest battles and darkest fears with each other? What if we shared our dearest hopes and wildest dreams and proudest successes and most crushing defeats? What would life be like if we humans finally accepted our own perfectly imperfect humanity and admitted that we need each other in this wild, wonderful world?

The only way to heal from the pain
of the past is to walk through that pain
in the present. It's terrifying, I know.
It feels safer to just let the pain continue
to smolder in the darkest parts of yourself.
But the dark parts need tending, too, my friend.
Don't be afraid to breathe life back into those
embers of old pain, to rekindle the fires of
unhealed hurts. The flames aren't there to burn
you. They are there to light your way through
pain to healing. You can walk through courageous
and confident or shaking in your boots. It doesn't
matter. Just walk through it. Hurt will transform
into hope, wounds into wisdom, suffering into
scars that tell of battles won and lost and of a
human who survived it all.

Take some time to tell your child you like them today and list the reasons why. Then watch in wonder as they blossom before your eyes. Words of recognition and appreciation to a child are like sunshine and rain to a flower.