Queen of the World

 "Far more than you may realize, your experiences, your world, and even your self are the creations of what you focus on." Winifred Gallagher

Friday Peanut and I decided to climb Stone Mountain.

Stone Mountain rises 825 feet from the ground (1,686 feet from sea level) and the walking trail up the mountain is a steep one mile up (and another mile down).

It was 32 degrees when we left the bottom of the mountain headed up.

Peanut was SO excited. She was skipping on the rocks, joyfully talking....."Mama can you believe I'm going to climb a mountain?"

Having done this several times with the big kids, I had waited until I was sure Peanut was not going to NEED to be carried on either leg of this trip.

Somewhere, about 1/3 of the way of the up, Peanut starts to complain.

"My legs are tired."

"It's cold."

I reminded her that when its cold you have to be mindful of your breathing.

Deep smell the flower breaths in.

Long blow out the candle breaths out.

We practiced. We hiked.

We got about halfway and Peanut wasn't sure she'd finish.

I'm a firm believer in teaching kids they can do hard things.

I'm also a firm advocate of letting kids chose the hard thing.

Peanut and I paused at the pavilion and we chatted.

I asked her "Does your mind think you can't do it or your tummy?"

We've had long talks about the value of listening to her gut (which she calls her tummy). She knows what it feels like when something feels wrong and her tummy hurts.

We never go against the gut the feeling. It's vitally important to me that she learn to lean into that, to know it, to recognize what she is and is not comfortable with.

She decided her tummy felt fine with going up the mountain but her brain was worried about how high up we were.

We talked about how we can't let our worried brains be in charge.

We have to let our gut lead us.

If we let our worried brain that sees the tops of trees way down below, or the steep summit up ahead, lead us - we'd miss out on so many of life's wonderful opportunities.

We can do hard things.

We can climb mountains.

Ultimately though - I told Peanut it was her choice. It was HER mountain to climb or not climb.

She said "I REALLY want to stand on the top and yell "I'm the QUEEN of the world" ".

Peanut and I picked ourselves up and we made it to the top of that mountain.

Mama Warriors, it's so important that we coach our kids in how to do hard things without making them.

It's not a win for them if we say "You ARE doing this hard thing."

It's win if they CHOSE to do the hard thing because then they know the beauty of being the queen of the world.