She leaves the paved sidewalk and opts for the grass, doing cartwheel after cartwheel — her new bodily compulsion.
We come to the pedestrian gate of the neighborhood, but she’s off the path again — running up the hill and climbing over the fence, then cartwheeling some more.
She’s gotta do things the most difficult way possible, I’ve often thought of my cartwheeling girl.
But I’m wrong about that: she’s not after difficulty at all. Adventure, intrigue, and beauty is more like what she orders her life around.
The Chinese word for abundant, as in “abundant life,” is often translated as colorful. This is what she’s after — making life colorful, abundant.
As mom to this vibrant girl, I get to help her learn to seek the truest abundance with godly wisdom. Sometimes wisdom leaves ample space for cartwheels in green grass and hopping a fence; sometimes it calls for choices that don’t feel adventurous or look colorful on the outside. That’s going to take some practice and patience to lean into the heat and wait for the gold’s refining.
I also get to learn from her: to keep an eye out for green patches of prime-for-cartwheel-grass along the path, white dove’s eggs hidden in a bird’s nest, brown lizards scurrying in and out of bushes, or purple wildflowers to pick for someone you love. I learn to find color and abundance all along the path.
hope for the sojourn 