Two Different Colored Socks

A wise woman...colors outside the lines. 

While Christmas shopping this year I came upon a silver pendant that had THE most perfect message on it for one of my daughters. It simply read, "color outside the lines". I raced home with this little winner in my pocket and promptly tucked it into my secret Christmas hiding place. I couldn't wait to give it to her.

I continued to joyfully tackle the lengthy list of Christmas to-do's for the next few weeks, but I couldn't stop thinking about the necklace. Why was I so excited, and my mind so preoccupied, with this message?

As the holiday hullabaloo wound down the ah-ha moment came quite quickly. While I thought I was giving my daughter some sage wisdom that I hoped she would live her life by, I realized that my enthusiasm for this message was because it has one of MY greatest life lessons ~ that ironically I learned from my daughters.

My rigid thinking, rules oriented upbringing certainly influenced how I parented my daughters when they were little. Fortunately with their help and guidance, I've learned how to re-prioritize some things. 

Now I'm not talking about moral or legal things, without societal guidelines we'd all run amok. I'm talking about important things like matching socks, creative thinking and other ways we express ourselves to discover our own person-hood. Coloring outside the lines when we are little affects how we approach the bigger stuff later - like how we goal set, find solutions, release our imagination, or choose careers and partners. I'd venture to say that without coloring outside the lines (or in adult speak, out of the box thinking) we'd be void of life's greatest discoveries and inventions. "If you continue to think like you've always thought...."

I am so grateful that my girls intuitively followed their inner wisdom and boldly colored outside of the lines that I was conditioned to draw for them as a parent. 

Each day, I remind myself to take a page out of my daughter's book and give myself permission to color inside as well as outside of my lines...and that living it in full color is a lot more fun.

If I were to do it all over again...I'd wear two different colored socks.