I picked my son up from school today. He is in first grade. As soon as his skin and bones exited the fenced school yard, I could tell something wasn’t right. I prodded.
“How was school son?”
“Fine.”
“Are you sure. Looks like you had a rough day. Did something happen? Wanna talk about it?”
“No.”
“O.K. mister we aren’t leaving until you tell me why you look like you are about to cry.”
“Ambar said she doesn’t want to be my girlfriend any more.” He was now bawling like the baby he is.
That’s right folks. My six year old has a girlfriend. For real. Like, they are in love. He gave her a ring. He can hardly wait to be 18 so he can marry her. Even his teacher comments on how the two of them “get along so well they must be soul mates.”
I swept him into my arms and fought back empathetic tears.
“Let’s go home and talk about it more.”
His little body shook with the pain of his first heartbreak.
I wanted to promise him it wouldn’t happen again. That the pain of lost love eases with time. But that would be a lie.
Instead I told him the truth. I told him this was the first of many. I told him his heart would ache dozens of times over, that those scrapes will leave scars, and those scars tell our story. In that story we have two choices, we can allow them to break us or we can choose to let them build us up.
In love, as in business, we must stumble if we are to be fierce.
We will never know success by evading potential failure. It is failure that teaches us to learn and grow. It is the key ingredient to all our achievements.
What are you currently avoiding? How might your project grow if you fell six-year-old in love with what you are currently sidestepping?
Love this ❤️