{"id":279,"date":"2003-12-27T13:22:33","date_gmt":"2003-12-27T18:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=279"},"modified":"2015-12-17T12:02:48","modified_gmt":"2015-12-17T17:02:48","slug":"the-heart-cracking-emotional-bravery-of-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=279","title":{"rendered":"The Heart-Cracking Emotional Bravery of Children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So as I explained, I have been the primary Lego assembler over this Christmas holiday.  The house is now filled with my creations.  Quite elaborate.  Cashel and I have had fun putting them together.<\/p>\n<p>This morning &#8211; Cashel was, of course, up before any of us.  He was wide-eyed and alert, playing up and down the hallway with his Luke Skywalker and Han Solo action figures, as though he had been up for hours.<\/p>\n<p>I got up at the fiery crack of 10:30 am.  I made some toast.  I poured a cup of coffee.  I got my 56 pound &#8220;Ring trilogy&#8221;, and went to sit in the living room, for a glorious bacchanal of reading and caffeine.  And QUIET.<\/p>\n<p>On the edges of my consciousness, I became aware that Cashel was talking about taking apart one of the Lego constructions &#8211; so that he could have the fun of re-assembling it.<\/p>\n<p>He was blabbing to my parents.  &#8220;I think I want to take the Harry Potter room apart and then put it back together again &#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>My parents: &#8220;Good idea, Cash!  Good for you!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cashel then said, calling out to me, as he set himself up at the dining room table, &#8220;Auntie Sheila &#8211; I&#8217;m gonna take this apart &#8230; &#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I knew he was telling me because I was &#8220;the one&#8221;, in terms of Legos.  Did he need my help?  Did he want my aid?  Was he okay?<\/p>\n<p>Then Cashel said, &#8220;But I don&#8217;t need your help, Auntie Sheila.  Don&#8217;t worry.  I can do it.  You can have some time alone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><i>You can have some time alone.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>The sensitivity of that &#8230; the selflessness of that &#8230; to even notice that I wanted &#8220;some time alone&#8221; &#8230; and to inform me that he could do it on his own &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>My heart literally cracked at his emotional courage.<\/p>\n<p>And &#8211; of course &#8211; the second he said those words, I had no more desire for any &#8220;time alone&#8221; whatsoever! &#8211; I had to put my book down, put the toast down, and go and play Legos with Cashel.<\/p>\n<p>He is 6 years old.  He is very brave.  He is smart.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d rather hang out with him than read about Hobbits any day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So as I explained, I have been the primary Lego assembler over this Christmas holiday. The house is now filled with my creations. Quite elaborate. Cashel and I have had fun putting them together. This morning &#8211; Cashel was, of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=279\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[1101],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16374,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions\/16374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}