Dropping the Ball

I hope everyone has been able to witness a toddler try to catch something. It is hilarious watching the entirety of their arms come crashing together about five seconds too late or too early. But that's not why you should watch. You should see this because of the reaction. My niece, Amilie is definitely the cutest two-year-old in the world. She has a silly walk where she leans all the way forward and shoots her arms back and wiggles her head as her pigeon-toed feet stumble along. She is also fascinated by ceiling fans. She will take your hand and lead you to every fan in the house, gently demanding it be turned on and that you will hold her up almost close enough to touch it. She recently learned how to catch. How did she learn something like that? It seems almost innate. A tongue rolling either you have it or you don't kind of thing. Well, here's the process: She tried. She tried a lot. She still doesn't catch more often than she does catch. But here's the thing: She never once got upset when she didn't catch whatever the round thing was coming near her. And the people around her weren't disappointed in her. My little brother grant would gently toss her a ball, and she would grin and her eyes squeezed shut as her arms collided far too late. But after she missed, she giggled. She thought it was fun to play catch, regardless of whether or not she actually caught anything. The people around her didn't think she was stupid or incapable for not catching the ball; We just giggled along with her. And she wanted to try over and over again, letting the ball slip through her arms toss after toss. Do you ever wonder why we can't treat people like we treat children? It's silly to me that people think it's a negative thing to be treated like a child. We give love and patience to children that we would never think of giving to someone else. Why can't we be perfectly happy when someone doesn't catch a ball? Why is it that we get discouraged when we can't do something? It's just a ball. So what if it doesn't get caught? Who's to even say that's a failure? You can try again. And you can smile about it the whole time. And we as bystanders can be the fellow gigglers. We can show someone that we love them no matter how badly they fail. Or better yet, we don't have to think that everything is a failure. It isn't. Not catching a ball is just that; It's not catching a ball. It isn't bad or stupid or uncoordinated. The ball fell to the ground instead of being in your arms. And that's more than ok! It's ok to drop the ball sometimes. Instead of thinking we are idiots, let's giggle and keep playing.