Thanks, I needed that

The following is from a blog that has made me a reader; it is about a family that uprooted their life in America and moved to Africa to adopt a little boy.

"We've noticed that Sterling has a tendency to clutch his food tightly, and we've realized that probably comes from his time at the baby home, where having food taken from you by a greedy peer is a real possibility. I'm sure the powers-that-be discourage that sort of thing, but they can't watch everyone all the time, and so his food has probably been forcibly removed from his shrimpy little hand a time or two. So today I gave the kids one of their favorite snacks: sweet bananas with peanut butter. Everyone gets a banana and a spoonful of peanut butter to use as they wish. But I upped the ante today and gave them all a few dark chocolate chips to add some depth to the flavor. The other kids all left their chocolate on the table and picked them up one by one to eat. But Sterling gathered them all in his hand and clutched them tightly. They were his precious sweeties, and he wanted to keep them safe. Of course, they melted in his hand and turned into a gooey brown mess. He salvaged some of it with his spoon, but most of his chocolate wound up getting washed down the sink with soap and water, lest he paint the walls, table, benches, beds, toilet, light switches, door handles, and Lord knows what else with his soiled mitts. He tried to hold on to the gift I'd given him, and only wound up losing most of it down the drain. By clutching his gift so tightly, by refusing to trust that it would be there if he remained open-handed and left it on the table, he lost what he was trying so hard to keep. Someone else once said something along those lines.
It was a vivid reminder to me of the whole reason I'm here: to live an open-handed life. And I'm still learning. And my kids are teaching me."

Thanks for sharing the lesson.

Read more at: oneroofafrica.blogspot.com