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I am grateful for the children in my life.

I noticed this funny thing in my life where there was this space and time between when I went from being a kid to being an adult and there weren’t that many children around for a while. It was this in-between period almost. I noticed this because, even though I am not a parent, I love children. So I remember looking around one day and saying, there are no children in my life right now. We just didn’t have any in my family for this period of time and I didn’t yet have any friends with children. It was probably the only time in my life when I wasn’t around them on a consistent basis. Then at about 26, the first of my friends started having kids. At the time, I was particularly close to this friend and was able to spend a lot of time with their kids from birth and into their next 8 or so years. It reconnected me to the joy of being around children and how it opened up the playful childlike side of myself that can often go dormant in times of stress. Since then on a continuous basis, I have been blessed to be around a lot of children and I am really grateful for that opportunity. I learn so much from them. I mean, I love that new baby smell or when they look at you for the first time with recognition in their eyes instead of a glaze of not knowing, or when you teach them how to build something, or they start to go from baby to small human with a personality or when they are reflecting something back to you. I am grateful for all of the children who have been in my life, are still in my life, and the ones I have yet to meet. I am grateful for all of their parents for bringing them into the world, raising them, and doing the best they can. I am grateful for this next generation and I can’t wait to see what they come up with and what they create.