An open mind is a terrible thing to waste

Last night my husband and I were at an association meeting for our daughter's preschool. There was a wonderful guest speaker who talked about how to foster our children's innate talents in the arts...specifically, music and the visual arts.

This woman has had decades of practical experience with preschoolers; she owns and runs a fabulous preschool (in an adjacent town) that is super sought after because it is play-based, loving, sweet, and inspirational. Honestly, she was wonderful. I love my daughter's preschool but I, for a brief moment, wished she went to this woman's.

Not only that, but this speaker is uber (don't have an umlaut key) well versed in her research. Not only is she kind and sparkly and funny and engaging, but she is also smart. CrAzY smart.

Honestly, I am not usually into this kind of thing. There was an autoharp and I was cajoled into making a church and steeple with my fingers. With no children present. Seriously, not me.

Yet, this woman was so charming and full of wisdom pearls that I resisted slipping out the back door and listened. Really listened. I was getting into it.

But then the speaker said something that not only did not resonate with me, it was so discordant that internally I eye-rolled and thought, "Pffffft."

(There is no uglier response than, "Pffffft.")

But I decided to let that go, and keep my heart and mind open for what she might offer up next.

An what do you know? Not long after my pffffft moment, there were beautiful words of wisdom that I absorbed and will implement for the rest of my life. I tucked away a few pearls for future reference, and I realized that this wasn't a wasted two hours after all.

Wow.

So that worked for me...I let go of some of my knee-jerk reactions and allowed myself to listen. It was awesome!

I forced myself outside of my comfort zone and I will be forever thankful.