Por Barbara Britt, Barbara Britt, LLC: 850-621-7709; [email protected]
I would like to introduce you to a little girl. She is about 13-months old and holding on to her parent for support while moving her hinny and her head to the music that is in her heart. That does not seem like anything special, after all children dance, laugh with an open mouth, and speak in their own language.
However, I forgot to mention that Emma had a cochlear implant, and it has not been turned on yet and that her other ear with the hearing aid has been taken away for a couple of weeks. So, without hearing the rest of the world at all she is so full of love, happiness and the power to create she does not have time to feel bad about the loss of hearing, or anything else. She is free to be the very special Emma that God created her to be.
She feels the warmth and power of unconditional love. She can do anything. At 13-months old she does not realize that she is lacking anything. She does not have to hear someone else say what she should be and do. She sees a world where people smile, make funny faces, and hug and kiss her all the time. Emma certainly lets people know her needs and wants and does it with the most beautiful smile and contagious laugh.
Right after Emma was born someone told her Grand Mother I’m sorry your granddaughter was born disabled and she said there’s nothing to be sorry for, my granddaughter was born exactly the way God wanted her to be perfect…
As we grow older, we tend to lose Emma’s freedom. Through the passing of time, many of us have experienced being laughed at, ridiculed, judged. I have heard people say that as a child they did not realize they were different until they went to school, or even worse when they were pitied. This comes from a personal view of loss that we feel compelled to share with others, and so we feel sorry for them.
What would happen if we celebrated gratitude for what we have and built our lives on our strengths, joy and potential. Research shows that our thoughts have the power to shape our brain. The more conscious we are about perceiving the world around us, and focus on our experiences as being positive, the more this positive perception spreads. Rick Hanson explains that negative experiences are like “Velcro” and tend to stick in our minds, whereas positive experiences are like “Teflon” and more readily slip away. We must take control to intentionally work to integrate positive experiences into our brain.
You get to choose to be like Emma and dance when you cannot hear the music, smile with your whole being, and throw back your head and let the sun shine down on your face. What are you Grateful for Today? Who have you told, and most importantly who have you helped to dance today?
