Windows to the Heart: Parents and Parenting
By Lin Lim, Ph.D.
Inspiration comes in many forms and from many places. How would you know when inspiration comes?
I believe it starts with curiosity followed by being open to ponder “what ifs”.
Last weekend, my son and I went to the 1000 steps tide pool in Laguna Beach, California, to explore during the low tide.
We had a great time climbing over rocks, looking at crabs, starfish, anemones, seaweed, seabirds, and such. As we started making our way back, we found one lone, little fish in one of the tide pools. This had been the first fish we found. Shortly thereafter, we discovered a whole school of little fish in the adjacent tide pool--this one with a long outlet connected to the ocean.
As we continued our long hike back to our vehicle, I did not think much about this aside from a brief exchange with my son about our amazement at seeing so many fish right after we found our first lone fish,
During our hour-long journey back home, my son was very busy texting on his phone. I found out later that evening that he was busy typing up a short story inspired by the encounter with the fish in the two tide pools and not texting as I had initially thought.
Imagine my pleasant surprise: My son who has expressive language challenges, dysgraphia, and thus typically minimal written output, typed a complete short story on a tiny screen spontaneously on his own! When he shared his short story with me, I asked what inspired his story, and he told me simply, “I wondered about the lone fish and the school of fish we saw earlier--whether the lone fish will be welcomed, whether the lone fish wanted to leave to look for others, or whether the fish left or got lost. I wrote the story to find out how it ended.”
Parents, keep exposing your children to new experiences without any expectation of an outcome you want or wish for, you never know what might inspire your child, and inspiration may come when you least expect it and take you by surprise. In the end, we can only invite our children to be inspired, so enjoy the journey and experiences with your children.
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Dr. Lin Lim is a graduate of Boston University, where she earned a Ph.D. in human development. She also holds an Academic Graduate Certificate in twice-exceptional education from Bridges Graduate School of Cognitive Diversity in Education, and completing an Academic Graduate Certificate in Mind, Brain and Education from Johns Hopkins University Graduate School of Education. Dr. Lim volunteers for education related non-profits as her community involvement commitment as she journeys through parenting her gifted children. Dr. Lim is a founding board member of the Gifted Education Family Network, a Texas non-profit supporting gifted programming in public education.