Dear Kiddos
Today’s letter is kind of an extension to my last one about vulnerability. One of the ways that you can and should make yourself vulnerable in a way that I find really difficult is by asking for things: help, ideas, time, money, opportunity, what is due to you.
I find asking for things incredibly difficult. I find it hard to ask for help. I find it hard, even, to ask for what is owed to me or for something that is mine by right. I really hope you can learn to ask (in the right way, of course) because it seems to me that those who are able to out themselves out there benefit way more than those that protect themselves from potential rejection or awkwardness.
My friend’s brother is currently touring the United States, writing a blog about how Americans live. He is managing it by sometimes asking people for a sofa for the night. How brave is that? I am in awe that he is able to be what I would consider to be brazen. But that is my psychological block. What is brazen about it really? If I could help a traveller for a night, I probably would. And even if I couldn’t (or even didn’t want to), I wouldn’t mind being asked.
And even if I DID mind, surely that’s my problem, not the askers?
I like the thought of people working together collaboratively, as a community. I like the idea of being kind and generous. I am going to try to do that asking thing a bit more.
You need to harness the power of asking and appreciate, as musician Amanda Palmer calls it, the art of asking.
Be bold.
Love, Mama x
Dear Kiddos 