January 27: Courage

Lately, courage has been a big part of the nation's headlines. Just look at the people of Haiti, our President's passion for healthcare reform, and the soldiers who continue to spend their days overseas. Courage is what keep them standing on their feet, forging ahead; even when it seems as though their they're moving backwards and not forward. In our home, we've recently been blessed with our own demonstration of courage from my 6-year old daughter. See, right before the holidays, we had a very frightening experience from which we've discovered that my daughter has an allergy to tree nuts (not peanuts, just tree nuts - walnuts, almonds, pecans, etc.). You can't imagine how something like this changes the entire family's way of life. We now stringently check every food label and continually reinforce to her that she's going to be okay as long as she doesn't eat tree nuts. My heart goes out to her, as she's had an extremely difficult time coping with this situation; particularly in school where she is exposed to all types of food since both the school and her classroom are not nut-free. She seems to feel better after talking through the fears that come and go based on what she's doing at any given time (obviously, food triggers a little more anxiety in her), as she mostly just needs reassurance. Unfortunately, my wife and I are not with her during school in order to provide that for her. So, on the evening of January 27, I took a new approach. I created these 3x4 cards, if you will, each with their own little message, such as "Be Brave" or "You're Not Afraid of Nuthin!" (as my daughter used to always say to us), along with an image of Barbie from her various movies. In her videos, Barbie always portrays a women of strength and courage who overcomes her fear, worries and struggles to achieve the things she sets out to achieve. My wife and I put one in her school folder today to surprise her and to let her know that we're behind her even when we're not with her. We'll try this for the next couple of days and see how it goes in terms of alleviating some of her anxiety. Keep your fingers crossed for us!