The other day, I was taking Delaney to ballet and, suddenly, I started to see life through her eyes. I unconsciously projected myself into her little body and her mind. And, for one moment, I felt the newness of everything.

Every day, she tries something new.  Looking at the world from her perspective,  I felt so courageous! My God, she is so brave.

Delaney decided that she was interested in ballet, so I enrolled her in classes. But she has to put on the leotard, the tights, and the shoes. She is the one waiting outside class, studying the other little girls, telling me, “I think I’m going to make a new friend today.” She is the one marching into class to attempt something she’s never attempted before. She is the one who emerges with a brand new way to move her body.  She is the one thinking about a new dream — perhaps performance one day. Perhaps pointe shoes.

She also wants to skate and play the guitar. Not because her friends are doing it. She’s simply interested in what skating feels like, in how you move your fingers to play a guitar.

Every day holds such possibility and she walks into every single new event with amazing courage and grace.

I don’t feel that newness in my life quite as often as I used to. But that just makes sense because of where I’m at in my life. I’ve made choices that have led to narrower paths. And I love my life!  This is not an essay about regrets; I have few to none. It’s about recognizing the beauty in the way my daughter approaches the choices she now gets to make.

In that moment before ballet, I was struck by the fact that everything she sees and does these days presents her with an amazing rainbow of possibilities, of dreams, of ways to craft her life. And she marches right into those possibilities excited about what she might learn.

I’m in awe.

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