... Living inspired by the beauty of life, one post at a time.

Monday, June 29, 2015

Why I took my sixteen year old son to India

The teenage years are tumultuous (and that is an understatement). The pull of the world is intoxicating, a fast paced, smarter, brighter, richer world demands that our teenagers pay attention, and they do! Everything is at their finger tips. Life happens at the press of a button, it is instant and self focused. Instagram and Facebook ensure a false sense of identity develops deep in the teenage psyche. The lens of the technological age distorts what is truly important. When the eyes of the heart are filtered through a false reality, dissatisfaction sets up house in the soul. I want my son to see life differently, to live life through a different lens.

I sense the pull of adventure, know that it is this spirit that pulls him now into manhood. I watch my son pull away from all that he has known to stand purposefully on his own, in his own way. I feel his bid for freedom in the little things, in the challenge of an opinion or the questioning of beliefs. My mother heart slides between chastisement and encouragement, pushing him to see his own capabilities and the potential that is waiting out there for him. I want him to see a reality beyond iPhones and iPads, to see the real world, both it's beauty and it's pain. It is difficult to grasp when it has become all that you know. Face to screen time has consumed the life of our teenage children. I want my son to breach the borders of an ordinary life. 

Experience is the greatest teacher. 

I decided that experience should get to work!











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