Staying Lit Without Burning Out

This blog post may be a bit odd, but it’s a thought that popped into my head as I was watching my daughter play and speaking with my husband today.

As a parent you begin to see your child’s personality emerge very early on and it progresses rapidly as they continue to grow and learn. Valeria has such a spirit about her, absolutely fearless, funny and social. This may sound silly, but she is so independent and sure of herself it’s absolutely astonishing. And as a mother I want to protect that for her, so she can keep her already incredible personality and confidence intact. It would truly crush me to see someone, people or something try to crush her light because I know how that is.

It made me realize that as a child my “light” was slowly taken away by others and by life events. Who I am today is very different than from when I was a child. Today I’m introverted, antisocial, overly logical, blunt, insecure and anxious. I was the polar opposite as a child, funny how life works out isn’t it?

And though I can not stop life from happening to Valeria; I can hopefully teach her to be strong and confident in who she is, so she is able to get through situations with intelligence and grace. As much as I’d like to protector her, and we all know that feeling as a parent, the reality is we can’t. I pray that no one will ever try to extinguish her light, even for a second. I’ve already put people in their place, happily, when they’ve tried to criticize or say something negative toward her. She can’t fully speak for herself right now, so I will be her word warrior! Flexes her arm muscle

But it’s made me rethink my life and my personality a little bit as well. I can only be my authentic self with select individuals who I trust, love and really can handle ALL of me. With absolutely no judgement. Because let’s face it, in the society with live in now, everyone scrutinizes EVERYONE. Heck, I’m guilty of it too, we all are. But I’m tired of changing myself or hiding who I am because of people. It sucks. But how do I do that without being judged or exiled? Is it even possible? Let’s be real for a second, if people knew the things rolling around in my head and the fact I curse like a sailor most the time (not around Valeria, don’t worry!), I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be well liked. Shrugs

So the question is, can I get my light/spark back or is it dulled forever?

That’s something I’ll have to work on.

Hopefully my husband and I can teach Valeria valuable tactics to deal with situations and people so that she never loses her confidence, self-assurance and that spark that makes her special. Any advice is helpful advice, leave it in the comments if you could please!

Sorry for the rant, but I needed to get this out of my head. Can you relate at all?

I hope you have a good day or night wherever you are in the world!

Ciao!!