“Please don’t throw that stone,” I shout.
I am overly anxious, raising a high-speed train of a child with no tracks in sight.
Then, I step back and exhale in relief. No one is hurt. We stand together and watch the ripple effect: the ever-expanding circles in the water, created by the stone he threw.
“You’ve just created a ripple effect,” I say, crouching beside him to share the moment.
“Oh wow, that’s beautiful,” he replies. “Can I do it again?”
And just like that, we all join in, copying his action, each of us tossing stones into the lake. It’s beautiful. The way light hits the water, how stone meets surface, and the resulting ripples glisten and dance. Water and light merge in nature’s quiet magic, almost like a glimpse of heaven.
A new family sport is born: who can create the biggest ripple?
Through this blend of beauty and background anxiety, hoping no one gets hit by a stray stone, I’m trying to teach him something. Not through textbooks, not through the national curriculum, but by finding a way into his world.
This is my moment. To join him. To teach while the window of wonder is still open. Before he loses that spark – that natural curiosity.
Because feeding a curious mind isn’t about forcing it into a one size fits all box. That’s like trying to squeeze into shoes that don’t fit. Uncomfortable, awkward, and eventually damaging the longer you walk init.
Later, I sit with my boisterous boy and talk about the bigger ripple effects in life. The ones our actions create. Some are obvious, whilst others lie hidden beneath the surface – deep, dark waters that can disturb everything around them, even the unseen.
As Isaac Newton, once said: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
You see, my son’s high-speed impulses affect all of us. Sometimes the result is joy. Other times, I want to dive under the water and hide. But instead, I speak to him, about the subject of life.
Because what better time to teach than when he’s open and tuned in?
And I offer these lessons from a loving place and at a loving a pace he can receive.
With all my love,
Uma love.
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