My daughter is a late walker. In fact, she didn’t start crawling until she was already cruising. For a while, my husband and I worried about her development. But like most “secrets”, once we started talking to others about her late walking they opened up with their own stories. She’s not late at all. We just had no idea what to expect.
I literally thought that once she could push up on her arms then the next week she’d start crawling. With walking, I thought once she started cruising, that she’d just start letting go of the walls in a day or two. (Am I experiencing the effects of our “on-demand” culture?)
Allowing myself to fall into a more patient and observant space, I’ve found it so rewarding to watch the process of walking. Everyday there are small starts and stops. They aren’t linear. In fact, some days she advances so much only to seem to take two steps back the following day.
I’ve seen her go from standing firmly in one location with two hands firmly planted on the wall to lightly touching objects as she wanders around the room. We started holding her two hands in the air and now, physically, she doesn’t need any.
What’s amazing is that whether she walks or not all comes down to her confidence. She walked on her own this week. Walking far enough that we could actually video it. She did awesome and was so proud of herself.
But, there is always a moment in her journey when she realizes what she’s doing. She pauses, almost if over thinking. And in that moment she falters. (And I start in with the Boom, Boom, baby goes Boom song).
It’s the same when she is too excited. When she runs too quickly for her ability. She quickly finds herself on the ground.
It is a beautiful analogy for so much of what we encounter in our lives. Mixing the need for confidence with the patience of practice. When the two are aligned, we find both our balance and our flow.
When she walks successfully by herself, her joy is contagious. The pride she feels shines through. It’s an amazing feeling to be on the recipient end of that joy. The joy we feel from being in that moment of balance and flow is something humans get to feel over and over again…if only we allow ourselves the space to try and the patience to endure.
