How My Cute Little Niece Norah Taught me to Say WOW to Life (TIP: Learn How You Can do Too!)
Meet Norah:
She is my 3 year old niece.
Although the more skeptical among you may point out that I’m totally biased, I chose to fully ignore that when I say: she is the most adorable niece in the world!
Period.
A few days ago, I shared a lot about my background and why I joined Steemit in my 'IntroduceYourself' post: I am Really BORING 💤 . So I Hired BADASS 🔥 BIG MIKE to Introduce me!
I am really grateful for all the positive comments that post generated. A very warm welcome.
However, there was one thing missing in that post: I did not explain why I chose @LiveNowandWow as my Steemit username.
Enter Norah.
Last year she taught me a lesson about how to better live my life, one that I still take to heart today.
Does that spark your interest just a tiny little bit? If so, you will want to keep reading!
Why?
Because by the end of this post you will not only understand why I picked my username; you will also have learned how you can live your life in a more positive way.
Sound good? Then let's get started!
I have lived in Southeast Asia for the last four years. Although I really enjoy my life there, it has one big downside: I don't see my family much.
But there are a few special moments in the lives of your loved ones that you just don’t want to miss. Last year, my dad retired. And that was one of those moments.
So I jumped on a plane.
But of course I wasn’t just going to fly in, congratulate my dad, and return to Asia.
Instead, I stayed for a whole month. As I had no apartment to live in anymore, I stayed with my parents.
Luckily my brother, his wife and their young daughter Norah live close by.
You can really tell how long you have been away by seeing how much your young nephews and nieces have grown. I mean, my parents and siblings still look roughly the same.
But Norah was still a baby when I last saw her.
Two years later she could walk. And talk! Well, babble is better way of putting it 😉 .
Where before she was just this cute little thing, now she had developed personality.
And she taught me a lesson I will never forget.
A lesson that led me to pick @LiveNowandWow as my Steemit username.
Now that I was back home for the first time in years, I used this opportunity to reconnect with my family.
I decided to focus on the people that matter most to me: my family. I preferred spending a lot of quality time with a few people and (re)connect with them, over hopping all across the country to see a lot of 'long time no see' friends briefly.
It's just a fact that friendships water down when you live abroad, except for the few that are the strongest. At the same time, you develop new ones with the new people you meet. I'm no exception to that rule.
But family matters.
One day of the week, my parents would babysit Norah. That gave me a chance to really get to know her better, and do my best to leave a 'Oh, that's that cool uncle that lives far away' impression that will hopefully not evaporate into thin air before my next return.
One thing we did to cement our relationship was sing a song together.
One evening, my brother and sister-in-law had invited me to come over for dinner.
It was mid-September, which meant sunny days and evenings with mild temperatures. We sat outside, my brother has a great backyard. Where he keeps chickens by the way!
It felt like I had never left. We chatted about work, family, football, coffee, raising Norah. You know: all the things that matter in life.
As we were chatting, the chill of the night started to set in. And it was getting darker. So my sister-in-law lit a few candles, and continued her conversation with me. I hardly paid attention to candles.
Until…
All of a sudden I heard a loud WWWWWOOOOOOOOOWWWWW!! right next to me.
As I turned to my left, I noticed Norah was standing next to me.
In her pyamas.
Mesmerized by the light of the candles.
Now these candles were not fancy, big or colorful.
No, these were just simple, cheap waxine candles!
My sister-in-law and I were both dumbstruck for a few seconds, surprised as we were by Norah’s excitement.
And then we started to laugh!
We patted Norah on the back, gave her a hug.
Aand we looked at the candles. We really looked at them. With the same admiration that she had.
And then I saw what she saw: these hypnotizing, burning lights. Flickering, constantly moving, contrasting against the dark sky. Magic.
How AMAZING is that?!
I learned an important lesson that day.
When we are young, we explore the world around us with great excitement. Everything is still new, and surprises await us around every corner.
But as we grow up, we focus more and more on the bigger things. And as a result, we stop noticing the beauty in the smaller things that are around us every day.
As we lose touch with whatever happens NOW, from moment to moment, it is easy to get sucked into worrying about the past or the future:
- “Sally told me that John said I’m fat. Why would he say that?”
- “I don’t like my mother-in-law, I wish I didn’t have to go to her birthday next week…”
- “I work so hard at it: how long will it take before I start making more than a few dollars on my Steemit posts?
Sound familiar?
As adults, we tend to see children as these 'mini-me's' that still have so much to learn. And that need to listen to us, the wise and experienced adults.
However, I'd like to suggest that this can be a two-way street: exactly because little children are still learning everything, they can teach us something too.
They can be a mirror: kids can reintroduce us to the things we may have forgotten along the way, while growing up. These things are still there, gathering dust.
It is never too late to change your attitude towards life!
You can relearn to be amazed by the beauty that is around you every day. You are never to old to experience a sense of wonder.
You just need to get out of your head and open your eyes.
This is what mindfulness is all about.
I personally experienced this effect just days after Norah taught me this invaluable lesson.
My dad had to go back to his office in Rotterdam one last time, to return his set of keys and say his final goodbyes. So we decided to spend the day together in Rotterdam. Ride around on our bikes, just the two of us. I have lived in Rotterdam, but I moved away ten years ago. It wasn't my favorite city at the time, to be honest. But a lot of positive things have happened since then. Exciting new architecture, a new train station. It was really great to be back!
Rotterdam is split in two by a river, the ‘Maas’. There are a few ways to cross this river. We had to cross the ‘Erasmusbrug’ (Erasmus Bridge) to get to my dad’s office.
As I was driving on my bike, I looked up to take in the structure of the bridge. And that’s when it hit me: WWWWOOOOOOOOOWWWW!
I literally heard Norah’s voice in the back of my head.
This bridge is so cool!
It's huge, I felt so small looking up. Yet it is also elegant.
Really a well executed, beautiful piece of design.
I felt that sense of wonder, and I smiled from ear to ear...
This all happened almost a year ago. However, my thoughts still drift back to these events every now and then.
To remind myself of this lesson I learned, and really implement in my life, I chose @LiveNowandWow as my Steemit username.
And I started two series based on the same principle:
- TravelNowandWow: follow me as I travel around the world
- YummyNowandWow: let me introduce you to lots of delicious nomnom food!
Here are the posts I have written so far:
- TravelNowandWow #1 - Did You Know You Can ⛷️ Ski on Cyprus?!
- TravelNowandWow #2 – Touching the ️ Clouds ☁️ in the Mountains of Northern Thailand
- TravelNowandWow #3: Wat Chedi Luang, the Amazing Elephant 🐘 Temple Ruin (Temples of Chiang Mai part 1)
- YummyNowandWow #1 - 5 🍚 Dishes 🍲 You HAVE to Try in Vietnam!
- YummyNowandWow #2: DELICIOUS Coconut Ice Cream 🍨. How Did I Ever Live Without It?!
- YummyNowandWow #3: Pad Thai Mustache Style – Hands on THE BEST 👍 Pad Thai 🍚 in Chiang Mai (Thailand)
- YummyNowandWow #4 – Mango Sticky Rice : the MOST Incredible Dessert You Never Tried!
- YummyNowandWow #5: Barefoot, Chiang Mai's Hidden Pasta Gem
And this is my IntroduceYourself post:
Many more post will follow, Steem ON!
I hope this story really inspires you to also reflect on your life:
When Was the Last Time You Really Felt a Sense of Wonder?
Please Share in the Comments!
Credit: all images are my own. Image of the Erasmusbrug is in the public domain.
Thank you for sharing the story of how Norah changed your life. Most people ignore the simplest /smallest things not knowing how important they are. There is a nice book by Echart Tolle called 'the power of now', I think people should read it.
You're welcome, @practicaleric!
And that's a great book suggestion. I read it, and agree that everyone could benefit from reading it. Multiple times actually. You pick up different things when you reread it.
Wow, what a touching story, livenowandwow! 💗 I agree that children really notice the wonder of the universe much better than us adults. As adults, we are so acutely aware of time and the schedule. For example, We need to be there at 9 pm, let's get going! or Hurry up, we're going to be late! I feel like I'm always in a rush to make it to the next thing on the schedule and missing out being in the moment.
But my kids are just the opposite of that, they'll stop to look at the ants going into the different tunnels and wonder where those tunnels lead to, they get so excited when the frozen food arrives in the mail because they get to do experiments with the left over dry ice. They just spent half an hour in the bathtub yesterday making "water babies" with elongated balloons. They really know how to have fun and be in the moment.
Like your post says, I think adults can be much happier if they can remember how to be kids again - at the least the part about being in the moment. Your post is inspiring me to slow down and take more time to enjoy each moment. Thanks for sharing your story!👍
Glad you enjoyed it @sizzlingmonkeys!
Your kids sound like they got the hang of it, lol: water babies with elongated balloons? Haha, now that's creative!
Reminds me of the other day, when I went on a morning hike. As I walked up the mountain, I was all in my head. Thinking a lot about what I wanted to do, what I had to do, etc. And then I came across this funny furry fluffy little fella:
This must be one of the funniest creatures I have ever come across. It was just walking slowly, in no particular direction. And I followed it, keeping my distance as not to disturb him. And only when that moment was over and I continued my hike, I realized that I had been fully present in that moment. Cause here's the irony: the moment you're thinking &"Wow, I'm so present, in the moment!" you're not anymore. You lost it.
You are right, as adults we ARE really aware of time and schedule. Add to that the stress of having to pay the bills, are our loved ones going to be safe, etc. And you can see how easy it is to miss the beautiful little things that happen around us all the time. We just need to lift the veil and be willing to see it.
And that takes time. But each time we're snapped out of whatever we're stressing out about is a learning moment. One day it's your kids being mesmerized by ants, the next day the above post I wrote, tomorrow it will be something else. But each of those moments serve as a reminder of where we want to go, and is another building block for the way we want to live our life.
Hope you will be able to find more moments in which you can slow down!
Exactly! I have a lot of internal dialogue too. I sometimes use this app called "HeartRate+ Coherence" to clear my mind. It's basically an app that helps guide your breathing. It has a little ball that goes up and down to show when to inhale, when to hold, and when to exhale (you can adjust the settings so the breathing feels natural to you). I'm not particularly good at meditating, but somehow when I use this app and try to follow the little ball with my breathing, I can't think of anything else.
BTW, what is that furry little creature? It reminds me of a fuzzy caterpillar, but from the picture, I can't tell the size of the creature.
That's funny, a while back I used a similar Android app called Paced Breathing. It was very relaxing, the first couple of times I used it I would actually doze off or even fall asleep. I have a new phone now, and have not installed it yet. Thanks for the reminder!
I have no idea what kind of creature it is. But it's about the size of a caterpillar. A couple of inches. I just had my phone right above it when I took the photo 😉
Probably a caterpillar then! I should probably use my app to relax more too.
Wooooooowwwww! Did I say it right? Cool story. Cool niece. Cool bridge! You shouldn't play that guitar the wrong way round though ;)
That's about right. Could use a few extra ooo's though...
Like this:
Wait what, have I played the guitar the wrong way round for all those years?! 😁
Great story and so so true - we must be like children, grabbing life full on.
Yes, totally agree, children can really gave us insights in what really matters in life!
Welcome @livenowandwow :)
wish you Best of luck
I am @sitara12511 Follow me and Feel free Contact with me
for Profitable Tips
I am Following you
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by livenowandwow from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, and someguy123. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you like what we're doing please upvote this comment so we can continue to build the community account that's supporting all members.
Let me welcome you to Steemit @Livenowandwow . I'm @chrisx and if you need any help feel free to contact or follow me :-)
Thanks for the warm welcome, @chrisx!
Congratulations, work more hard with consistency, consistency is key to success... @livenowandwow
She will be very popular
Hello @lovenowandwow ! Welcome, great post and very cute niece! I upvoted and followed. Best Regards, @gregdiamondmusic
Thank you, @gregdiamondmusic! Happy to see a fellow musician on board.