Dreams.
What did you dream about when you were growing up? What did you want to become? Who did you want to be?
I remember a discussion I heard that went something like this:
“Mary wanted to be physician.”
“How wonderful.”
“It is so just much stress and work, with the diabetes, I keep trying to steer her away from THAT idea.”
Imagine that? Now far be it from me to tell ANYone what to do but I am under the premise that if a child wants to be ANYthing, we should encourage that idea. There is nothing we are ‘protecting’ our child from by ‘steering’ them away from anything.
There are many INCREDIBLE families who live life with every ounce of energy they have. The truly unique thing about these INCREDIBLE families is they just make the choice to ‘go for it’, they are no different from you or I. But the choices are all about being positive.
There is a young lady in the UK who amazes me. Every time her mom (or mum–as my friends state it) posts a picture of this whirling redhead cheerleader; it truly just makes my day.
This young lady has a face that just says, “I LOVE THIS” and “I’M GOING TO DO THIS”. This is not just your ra-ra-type cheerleader; this is ‘throw me in the air, make a human pyramid, spin me out of control and catch me’ type cheerleader. I am sure her mum and dad are deeply concerned at every competition. I am also sure she takes every step necessary to make sure her little girl’s diabetes is managed.
But as I look at Paula and Danny’s Facebook pages, almost every single photo is their family doing some thing new and exciting. What a joy to see so much activity and joy in one family….and yes, they do it with diabetes. Now I am sure they have everyday challenges, like every family, but there is just so much LIFE in seeing their photos. Positive.
Our kids have big dreams that await them. We should do everything in our power to give them the opportunities to thrive. The world will throw enough barriers in their way, diabetes or not, let’s work to encourage what they want to do.
Dreams. Might just become the pathway for their life. I say, “Go for it.” Think about it.
I am a diabetes dad.
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