When life gets tough. . .wear a tiara!
I have the distinct privilege of being the mother of a beautiful seven year old daughter. Living with her, watching her grow up and experience the world has been a fascinating journey. I'm still amazed by what she teaches me. My daughter has a friend who is a "one upper" anything you can do I can do better. We have had many conversations about not taking things personally, ignoring it, etc., but to no avail. The friend had a birthday recently and received new ballet gear--leg warmers, sweater--all the big girl stuff. My daughter complained for two days that the friend would be insufferable at the next ballet class and I suspected that she was correct. The big day arrived, my daughter dressed for ballet (leg warmers and sweater, of course), I put her hair in the requisite bun, she complained a bit more about her friend and disappeared into her room. A few minutes later, she returned, ready to go and wearing a tiara. Given that jewelry was not allowed in ballet class and I seriously doubted tiaras were, I expressed this thought. My daughter shrugged and said "I know, I'm just wearing it in the car". Problem solved, life is good, tiara trumps the "one up" anytime. Moral of the story, brilliant life lesson learned from a seven year old--when life gets tough, skip the brownie from Back In The Day Bakery or the glass of wine and wear a tiara!