Learning how to WANT – from a focussed 3 year old
It was one of those early shabboses when all of our kids could walk and we could finally venture out on shabbos. That’s why, even though the sky was heavy grey and the autumn leaves were turning to mulch all over the pavements, it still felt worthwhile for us to pop over to my parents’ house for no special reason.
The walk up the hill was going surprisingly well. My five-year-old was going strong, marching along in her shabbos coat and wellies. My three-year-old was swinging her bejewelled arms around, plastic bracelets clattering as she went. Even my one-year-old was heading mostly in the right direction, and it looked as if we’d make it to my parents without incident.
It was around then, as I was congratulating myself on my lovely, easy-going kids, that miss three-year-old noticed that one of her bracelets was missing. Uh-oh.
“I’ll just go back a bit and look for it,” said Daddy gamely. Keeping the baby going forwards, I looked backwards down the hill at the deep mounds of leaves and mulch covering most of the pavement. It didn’t seem likely that a tiny plastic bracelet would be found in all that mess. I checked my daughter’s wrists. There were something like seven plastic bracelets on there.
“Are you sure one fell off? I don’t remember there being another one. Look how many you’ve got!” Maybe if I focussed her on what she DID have, she’d forget about the missing one, or realise she’d made a mistake.
But there were already tears welling up in her eyes. It was the red and yellow one, apparently. The one she got as a prize in nursery. Just last week! The most special one! What were the chances?
Halfway down the road, my husband turned back towards us and started trudging empty-handed back towards us, as my daughter changed gear from welling up to a full wail.
You can imagine the rest of the walk. It didn’t go well. She had REALLY prized that bracelet.
Eventually, somewhere between my mum’s brownies and my dad’s games, she did cheer up, and on the way home she was almost herself again. That is, until we came to the part of the road where we’d realised she’d lost the bracelet.
You could literally see the memory flood her. She suddenly, she shouted, “I just really WANT my bracelet!” And she kicked her foot with such force that her little slip-on shoe flew off, a couple of metres down the road. Being that there wasn’t an eruv, it wasn’t such a simple matter to get it back on. Luckily, she found it funny, and held our hands while she hopped towards the lost shoe, lying just off the edge of the pavement. Not wanting to pick it up and risk carrying it on shabbos, my pious little girl tried to slide her foot right into the shoe without touching it. This was quite a tricky manoeuvre for a little girl, and it took her a few tries. The shoe slid along, digging into the muddy leaves as it went. Mummy and daddy dutifully held their tongues.
Eventually, she had it on, and as she her foot pulled it out from the hole it had dug in the leaves, the whole family gave a collective gasp. Can you guess what was there?
It was her bracelet.
**********
Without meaning to, my little girl taught me to remember that Hashem is just WAITING to give us exactly what we want. There’s no such concept as a needle in a haystack for Him and there’s no such thing as impossible or even a bit too hard. All we have to do is WANT enough, with the purity and simplicity of a 3 year old – and it’s the simplest thing in the world for Him to give it to us.
Click below to be sent the Stories of Chanukah each of the 8 nights:
sara devorah time academy 