Red Paper Heart – What’s On Yours?

While I was at my program we were introduced to some very different things – but very effective things. At one point we watched a movie of a baby in a living room. This baby was crawling around, touching things, making noises, moving around, things babies at about 9 months do. They can’t yet talk but they are beginning a phase of discovery.

Shiny and colored objects usually attract Infant’s vision. The baby is 6 months old. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So, I bet you are wondering why I am talking about a baby huh? What does this have to do with me turning 3o or rediscovering myself? Just wait…..

We were all given a red sticky note heart and asked to complete a short assignment. While watching this video, using only half of the side of the paper, write down adjectives that describe the baby. The baby was bald, wearing only a diaper and in a living room with normal toys like a ball, a bear, blocks, etc. There was no way to say this baby was a boy or a girl.

The words appearing on the left side of my red paper heart were:

• Curiosity
• Adventurous
• Joyous
• Persistent
• Loving
• Resilient
• Inquisitive
• Brave

A good group of words. I was proud of myself! But I was still wondering what in the world this was doing for us. Why did these people think that watching a baby in a video made in the 70’s was going to help us?

Ahhh…..We were given another assignment. Break into groups of 3 and each take turns telling a favorite childhood memory. I listened to the other two people I was sitting with and they had stories of a bike and a lemonade stand. Then it was my turn.

I told my story – My best friend and I were in the 2nd grade, so 7ish probably maybe 8 I guess. We decided to walk to a convenience store where her dad worked to get a drink, it was hot, so it was either the weekend or a summer day. We talked to her dad for a long time and then left the store. We weren’t really decided on what to do next and an idea somehow came.

We walked up a large hill and on top of the hill hidden in the strips of trees, there was a train track. We walked down the middle of the train track talking and laughing. Then, around the bend up ahead a train was coming. She and I both jumped off the tracks but we were on different sides of the track now. My best friend looked terrified so I ran across to her side in front of the train as she was screaming.

My parents don’t know this story – well I guess they do now :).

Back in our small group, I was wondering, why did I tell this story? Why did they ask me to share a story?

Now we were asked to give each other 3 adjectives that we saw in the person who told the story. So, each of us would end up with 6 new words and that was to be written on the other side of the red paper heart. My group gave me these words:

• Brave
• Fearless
• Free
• Simple
• Innocent
• Sweet

Wow. Another good group of words. But I heard people tell me these things and I didn’t think that these were words that described me. My group mates weren’t wrong, they were just describing the organic me. The me that wasn’t protected by a barricade of walls for 20 years. The me that I didn’t know anymore. That’s why it felt wrong.

We were all then asked to think about these words as we went back to our lives and how these words, descriptions of us, either fit, or could fit into our life. I hadn’t thought about those words at all since I had returned home – until tonight. We were also told that the words we wrote down about the baby, are really things we see in ourselves.

You see, whether good or bad, people see in others what is inside themselves. So my list of words describing the organic me that I am so eager to learn to be – it is something I need to look at daily to remind myself, its already inside. I just have to let myself be me.

What words are written on your red paper heart? These are the words that live in your true heart – own them, love them, honor them, LIVE them.