Life Has Wrinkles You Didn't Even Know About

Elephants have wrinkles, wrinkles, wrinkles
Elephants have wrinkles, wrinkles everywhere....

I watched my mom and my two year old son singing this song with the motions a few days ago. My son patted his legs along with his grandmother and pointed to the appropriate body part and then turned in a circle and even sang a few of the words. On the way home, from the back seat I heard, "wrinkles wrinkles wrinkles". It was adorable!

I had no idea. I had no idea my son could dance and do motions on cue. We "dance" and "sing" such as it is with a two year old ALL the time. But this was prescribed movements at a pretty fast pace. And I thought it was developmentally beyond him.

But he does this to me all the time. He surprises me. I didn't know I could give him instructions and he would follow them until I saw his daycare teacher doing it. I just didn't even know to ask!

Life is this way sometimes I think. We're living our lives, wrinkles and warts and all and wishing we could do any myriad of things differently. We are in our little boxes that we've been in for years. And wishing our boxes were a different shape or size or that we didn't have one at all!

I want to share a secret with you today: Your box probably isn't even there. It's a figment of your imagination. It's a result of not asking.

Sometimes we just don't even realize an option is open to us. Maybe it's working from home. Maybe it's a different job altogether. Maybe it's your spouse giving you more compliments or taking out the trash. Maybe it's your child being more grateful. Maybe it's taking a class or two. Maybe it's something even bigger. But you have to ask first.

My son has apparently been able to sing and do motions and I just didn't know to ask him to do it. You have a world of opportunities open to you that you just don't know to ask for. You've already assumed they're off limits for you. They're not.

So today, dream. Think of what it is you aren't even considering an option that you really want. And then ask for it. Try for it. Maybe you are the only one holding you back! (And then I'd love to hear about it if you'd come back and let me know!)