Love. It’s a tricky subject but so simple and clear at the same time. I had a whole series of blog posts planned. Funny blog posts, my usual style I guess. But with some of the events in the world over the last week or so, I decided that the first one in the series should be a serious one. I will go back to the funny ones in future episodes. Last week there was an explosion at a concert that never should have happened, but does happen too frequently in our world these days. Don’t worry, this isn’t a post about world politics, but I will continue.
After reading about the incident online, and watching the news, I was struck down for most of the week by a terrified afraid-of-the-dark type panic, as one who gets anxiety usually does whenever there is an event that gets inside their head.
I spent a lot of time wondering why this event struck me more than any other in recent times, when these things are happening every day somewhere on our planet. After much sleeplessness and thinking, I narrowed it down to two reasons.
Firstly, many of the victims were either concert goers or had taken their children to one of their first concerts. As someone who has been to many a concert and live music gig, I could place myself there at the scene, and as I get older the more I can see me and my sister taking our nieces to such a concert. Or waiting outside the venue to pick the kids up. The thought of exposing children, to that kind of violence really makes me feel quite anxiously sick. The older they get and the more they discover life and enjoy events like concerts, the less we watch the actual concert and the more we (the adults) watch the kids, and enjoy seeing the excitement in their faces, consumed in their discovery and new experiences.
The second reason was that one of the victims died, shielding her niece from the blast (or was perhaps caught between the blast and the niece). This also got me thinking…..would I lay my life on the line for my nieces and nephews?
Without a second thought. In a moment. I would. Absolutely. I would just hope and pray that I would have reflexes fast enough to ‘get in the way’.
More importantly I would hope that we would never ever be in such a situation.
The anxiety of these events then turned into a kind of sadness as I thought about what I love about each of my favourite people, and how I couldn’t even bear that they be exposed to this kind of incident, let alone be even grazed or hurt in any way like those involved were.
There a millions of reasons I love my nieces and nephews. Being an Aunty is the best gift I have ever been given in my life. I am so privileged and grateful that these three beautiful humans are in my life.
I love how different each of them are. I love their uniqueness and their personalities. I love the way they look at me. The way they make me forget about all the bad stuff in the world and just focus on fun. Playing barbies, building a lego toilet or playing piggybacks is way more important than whatever my most recent meltdown has been.
They are not my kids, and so will not share names or photos on here. So I’ve given them each a code name for the purposes of this and all future “How to Aunty Posts”……
What I love about: Anakin Skywalker:
- Anakin is an individual – he isn’t into the same things as other kids, and doesn’t pretend to
- He is sensitive and caring
- I love how he gets so angry and frustrated but expresses it, gets it out there and then gets over it
- He is smart and inventive
- He is a great negotiator
- He forms special little bonds with people
- Just by being born he made me want to be a better person
- He is thoughtful and loving – he gave everyone a special little easter egg that he personally chose for everyone in the family at easter
- Being the eldest is tough and he and I understand how ‘completely annoying’ it is to have two younger sisters, especially one who is more ‘normal’ or more popular than we are. He takes it all in his stride
What I love about Ice Cream Shop Girl:
- Everyone knows he and likes her, she’s totally popular but doesn’t act like she’s better than anyone
- She forms strong bonds with others
- She is a natural leader even if she doesn’t see it
- She is such a hard worker and tries her best at everything
- She is very entrepreneurial
- She likes to get things right.
- She has the best face when she has tried something difficult and got it right
- She’s got the coolest fashion sense and sense of style
What I love about Howling Wolf:
- Howling Wolf walks to the beat of her own drum
- She doesn’t care whether someone want to be her friend or not
- She voices her opinion
- She is totally adaptable – I’ve seen her literally sleep anywhere
- She has a strong independent fashion sense – not afraid to pair a black wolf t-shirt with a Peppa Pig skirt and gum boots on the wrong feet
- She is the epitome of ‘cool’
- She is the most resilient person I’ve ever known
- She literally does dance like nobody’s watching
- She loves animals – in a particular her dog
- She is street smart and the happiest-go-luckiest person you could ever meet.
So in light of recent world events, none of us know what is going to happen next. Both good and bad. So my first lesson on “How to Aunty” is probably the easiest, the simplest yet most important. Love them hard. Simple as that. Although its easy with these guys.
