A Nice “Little” Story
by Michelle Molin • Greenlawn, NY

I was in a bit of a funk one afternoon, but, it was a gorgeous sunny day, so I picked myself up and went out for a walk just to see if the sunshine would lift my spirits.

As I walked I was doing my best to slow down the thoughts in my head and ignore the feelings in my body and just listen to the world around me. The first thing I heard was the wind blowing and then my
attention was grabbed by lots of birds chirping, very loudly actually. (I think they are a little peeved at me actually because I ran out of birdseed a few days ago). And then all of those sounds seems to quickly be drowned out by the even louder ruckus coming from the children next door playing on their trampoline.

There were four of them on there all together. Two older boys around 10 or 11 and two younger girls around 5 or 6. As they were jumping, they were all laughing and screaming and counting in unison 1, 2, 3, gooooo. And they all seemed to be having so much fun that as I walked I just let their laughter capture all of my attention. But as I listened more closely, I could hear that the boys were having a much better time of it than the little girls. Because they were so much smaller, the girls were having a more difficult time staying on their feet. As the boys jumped up and down, the girls seemed to get thrown from side to side because their tiny bodies could not compete. They seemed to be doing a lot more falling than jumping. I could hear their exhaustion and see their frustration as the game was becoming not so much fun for them.

Having had enough of the struggle of trying to keep up with the bigger boys, in resignation, the two little girls plopped themselves down in the middle of the trampoline. And when they did, something amazing happened. They quickly experienced their first physics lesson. As the boys continued to jump in unison, the little girls sitting down in the middle, popped up like popcorn, flying in the air and landing back down safely again. After a few minutes of watching them I could see that they were all really starting to get the hang of this new game. As the boys exerted all of the effort and had a great time doing it, the girls would sit still in the middle and experience the ride of their lives. As this new game fell into a rhythm, the laughter and giggles and sheer bliss pouring out of these kids just filled up the whole backyard. It was like happiness squared.

And then, in a moment of total exhaustion, when all of the children had collapsed down on top of each other to laugh and giggle and catch their breath, I heard one of the little girls scream out with delight …. “I love being little”.

This wise little girl at such a young age had found that place that I had been looking for. She learned pretty quickly that when she struggled to be something that she was not, big like the boys, she was thrown about and found it very difficult to stay on her feet. But when she accepted who and what she was — a little girl — she found the perfect place for her. The game had a perfect place for everyone. For the boys it was it was jumping, for the girls it was sitting down.

Not once did I hear the young girls say that they wish they were big so they could play like the boys. Instead they stayed true to exactly who and what they were and declared with no doubt, remorse or exception “I LOVE BEING LITTLE”.

Michelle Molin is a writer, marketing strategist and founder of Organic Communications, a company that helps clients integrate conscious living and authenticity into successful marketing programs. OrganicCommunications.com.