"Maybe"

I often take it for granted that people understand what I mean when I speak. Morgan teaches me each day that this may not be the smartest thing to do. In fact, she teaches me that if I really care about whether I am understood, I need to remember to make sure I am speaking the same "language" as my audience. This concept isn't one that is new to me but one that definitely needs to be brought to light every now and again in order to keep me on my toes. An example that I used in a recent post was Morgan's idea of "stranger." Had I not asked her what her definition of the word was, we could have missed each other completely. Another example happened today with my mom. Morgan called her "crazy." Mom insisted she wasn't "crazy" and seemed somewhat bothered that Morgan would call her that. When I noticed my mom's discomfort, I asked Morgan what "crazy" was and she said, "silly." Now who would be bothered by someone calling them "silly." Of course, that is unless their idea of "silly" is different than mine:)

Anyone who has had the privilege of spending time with children knows that effectively communication with them requires a lot of patience, practice, and mindfulness. That said, it is very difficult to explain certain words/ideas that exist in our language. And still there are concepts that seem like they are simple, but take a long time for a child to grasp. The idea of "maybe" is one that Morgan has not fully understood until recently. Honestly, I am not even sure I was aware that she didn't really understand it. But in the last few days, she has started to be able to talk about being excited about the possibility of an event happening, yet holding in her mind that the event may not happen. On some level, I suppose it may not seem like that big of a deal. The cognitive leap that had to have occurred in order for our current conversations to take place, though, is huge.