a greater belonging

I ask our boys (and soon Elsie) what they can know for sure. They answer, I belong! It’s true. They do. I want them to know they can always come home and that we have a belonging kind of family. And I hope one day that expands to my children having a knowledge of their role in a greater belonging. That they play an important part in their little corner of the world, wherever they’ll grow to live and that what they do and say causes a ripple effect far past those corners. 

So much of that kind of belonging starts in our home and in the ways we spend time together. I love it when I come across a way to make good ripples from our corner of the world, something that will teach my kids that doing something small can be really big for someone who needs them, someone close or far away. 

That means that if I see something that needs to be done, I try to show my kids that I’ll help–that we will help. To show them that both nature and people are who we serve. So we do the little things, like pick up litter and we talk about how taking care of our planet is important because we want future generations to know the best place possible. We want to have been good stewards of this gift–the gorgeous world we live–in preparation for who comes next and to honor this place we call home. Picking up a pop can while we’re out on a family walk and throwing it in the bottom of the stroller for the recycling bin isn’t much, but it speaks something to these little people who walk with us. It whispers to them that we care about something and someone other than ourselves. 

Recently, as a family, we spent our Saturday packaging meals that would be sent to Somalia. We had to wear hair nets for that one, but we did it. We had fun together and we talked about why it mattered and it was one of the best Saturdays we’ve ever had. 

I don’t say this to toot my parenting horn. I say it because I want to talk about how to teach our children why it matters to help with big and small things. I know it starts with us, in our home, the way we belong and the way we want to extend that love out our front door, for immediate needs and for those that will come much later. 

There’s so much more we want to do, through the years, to spend this kind of time with our children. I don’t want to be a parent that tells her kids that it’s important to help, from the couch. I mean, kids are too smart for that. I want to go out and do, alongside them. The very best ripple effects are born in authentic connections anyway, the kind that come from spending time together, our relationships rooted in how we show one other that we love each other and the world around us. I want that with my children.