My 5 year old, Lily, is my WILD CHILD. She is the one who paints not with a paint brush, but with her entire hands.
She’s the one who always somehow looks like this after playing with chalk outside: 
She’s the one with the BIGGEST feelings; an empath who is deeply tuned in to everyone around her, while simultaneously living in her own little imaginary Lily World.
I feel like I learn so much from my little wildling. And the way in which she can live so freely, and in the moment, is something we should all strive for!
This weekend, we had some mommy-daughter time at Inflatapalooza.
One of her favourite songs came on, and she said, “Let’s dance!” and got up to dance right there, without a care about who was watching or what she looked like:
Imagine that FREEDOM!
After that, we went to a playground, where she immediately introduced herself to another little girl, and became best friends. That girl’s mother told me that her daughter is usually so introverted – but my Lily just charged right in.
Imagine how easy it would be to make friends as a grown-up if we could still live so fearlessly!
After that, we went fishing with Cory’s Lil’ Anglers. She caught her first fish and jumped Olympic level heights in celebration. She reacted with the same enthusiasm and celebratory spirit for everyone else around her when they caught their own fish, or gave words of encouragement when they did not.
Imagine if everyone acted with such compassion, kindness, and openness.
I look at my little girl and I see all the good in the world. I also see my beautiful wild child, my sweet free spirit, whose larger than life energy isn’t always appreciated into this one-size-fits-all world.
Lily has been wild since the day she was born.
I remember looking at her little face and marveling at how ALL that personality – this relentlessly determined, endlessly energetic, and eternally creative tiny BEING – came from *me*.
I knew very early on that Lily is here to make a tremendous impact on the world, and I only hope I can enable her to do so.
I’m scared that I will somehow crush her vibrant spirit.
I’m scared that the world will break her by forcing her to conform to certain standards.
There is NO ONE like her on earth, and I don’t want her to feel like that is a ‘bad’ thing and that she needs to be like everyone else.
Getting to live life by her free-spirted side is the best adventure of my life, and the greatest privilege.
Do you have a wild child in your life?
