Real Grace

Usually I write here about different feelings and epiphanies I have along my healing journey.  While I still am on that journey I still feel like I’m on a tranquil plateau.  So, while I’m here I decided to ask my husband about updating this blog site.  In our search for a new theme I came across this website; www.web2feel.com.  There is an amazing amount of free themes on this site and they are pretty amazing themes.  Now, I need to put a disclaimer here; I have not viewed all the themes so if there is anything inappropriate on their site I wash my hands of it.  I will say that I looked through 30 of the 68 pages of their free themes and did not find anything inappropriate.

So, how do you like the new look?

Yesterday and today were amazing!  My 6 year old daughter and 9 year old son have finally learned how to ride their bikes without their training wheels.  I didn’t know I could feel such pride in my children!

I have been fairly concerned since this summer began that my 9 year old son still could not ride his bike without the training wheels.  I did take him out a couple of times to try to teach him but was unsuccessful.  What motivated me to try again was a blog post I read where the mom started by saying, “I just finished teaching my son/daughter to ride their bike without the training wheels”.  I thought, “How do you just teach them?”  So, yesterday I decided we need to figure this out.  I started with my son and sure enough he started whining and complaining.  I told him to take a break and began working with my daughter.  I began holding the back of the seat for her and then tried running along side her as she peddled.  Well, that just about killed me and was limiting her speed.  So, we moved to the grass, I held on to her seat, took a few steps to get her balanced and then let go!  I couldn’t believe how much anxiety I felt as I watched her peddling and waited for the “crash”.  I knew she would have to learn how to catch herself but I wanted so badly to run and catch her.  However, I resisted and you know what?  She did it!  She peddled, she lost her balance, she started tipping and finally stopped but she was ok.  Within 30 to 40 minutes she was riding her bike all by herself!  She even ended up crashing once but got right back up and we decided to work on braking.   Today she was totally riding by herself and doing a great job.  My son finally found the courage watching his sister and, with a little coaxing from my husband, got up on his bike and did fantastic!

I’ve heard the analogy before about teaching a child to ride a bike and learning to let go with how that applies to so many areas of our lives but it really is something to experience it, especially since I can tend to be a control freak.  So, not only was this a great experience for my children in building their confidence but it was an amazing experience for me in letting go and not needing so much control.  Seeing them get scratches and bruises from loosing their balance on their bikes, yet getting back up on their bikes and riding some more was so rewarding.  I plan to tuck this experience in my heart and glean from it in the coming years (teenagers - oooo, can’t wait!).