Who Am I? Why Am I Here?

Every once in a while my children say things that catch me off guard. Most of the time they're funny. But, often they also carry a deeper, philosophical significance that makes me see the world in a different light.

Not that long ago, my middle daughter was sitting down to a meal and moodily poking around at what she found on her plate. (Of all of our three girls, she's the most likely to be a tiny bit picky about food.) It was clearly apparent that she wasn't happy...

In all of the hustle and bustle of getting lunch on the table, gathering everyone from the farthest reaches of the house, and tidying up the kitchen, I ended up (as usual) hollering out every name that I could summon to the tip of my tongue, and assigning them in a more-or-less random fashion to whichever child (or cat) was closest. I think I even called my youngest daughter by her grandmother's name at one point.

After everyone was seated and our food had been blessed, I encouraged my little reluctant diner to give the new food a chance.

Me: Try it, sweetheart. You'll like it!
Her: How do you know?
Me: I'm your mom. I know you. I know you'll think it's good.
Her: You don't know me. Sometimes you don't even know my name...

Well, she certainly had me there, didn't she? Of course, I'm not suggesting that my momentary amnesia when it comes to names was an indication that I don't know my own children. However, maybe sometimes we do make unfair assumptions about people. Perhaps we get to the place of being so sure that we already know someone, that we stop trying. Maybe it isn't that that we don't know each other, but that we become overconfident that we do know someone that causes children to feel misunderstood, married couples to drift apart, and colleagues to frustrate one another.

But, as bad as it can be to stop trying to get to know someone, have you ever considered what happens when that someone is you? I've come to the place where I'm starting to ask - have I boxed myself in? Am I missing out on opportunities to learn new things? Have new experiences? Be a better person? Have I limited myself because of what I assume to be true about me?

My daughter's statement was a funny but potent reminder to me that it's not fair to stop listening, stop learning, stop getting to know the people around us. But, as much as we owe the courtesy of continuing to learn to other people, we also owe it to ourselves. So, if you'll excuse me - I'm going to go try something new. You never know - I just might find that I like it!