I chat to my sister a bit - on the phone. When we are each hiding from our sweeties (our respective at-home sweeties, not school sweeties). In the wardrobe. With the chocolate. Where it is quiet. Without the sweeties.
Anyhoooo - we have a bit of a recurring conversation.
It goes a bit like this.
Sister #1:Hey, remember when we were little, and we were running through the house, and I/you/we did *** {insert really scatterbrained crazy silly only-a-bored-1980s-kid-could-do thing here}?
Sister #2: Yep, bwhahahahahahah
Sister #1: Yeah.......... um, what were we thinking?.... No, truly, WTH were we thinking?
Sister #2: We just weren't.
The absolute magnitude of things children DON'T think about is mind boggling. And it is a bit beautiful all at the same time. I mean, do they even know the thinking-ness of thought yet?!
I could have spent thousands of hours over my career and life, telling children to think before they speak. Most won't.
We talk a lot about grace instead. About forgiveness. About not expecting perfection. About beautiful people making mistakes. And it's all OK.
{bullying aside}
And then we blow hot air into our cupped hands. And feel it. And open them and let the air go. Drift away.
And then we feel our vocal cords vibrating as we hum and talk about air with sound.
And we learn that a word is just hot air with vocal cords mixed in.
And we say a word and "watch" it disappear - with no power over us at all.
And then we promise that all the drama about the hot-air will stop, so you know, we can learn.