My Sister Knew The Keys To A Good Life By The Age of Three

Unintentionally, but still

In a home video that will remain forever etched in our family history, my younger sister KD (aged two at the time) recounts a bedtime story. It involves a girl (we’ll call her Mia) who makes friends with several animals in a forest.

At one point in her animated retelling of the tale, KD happily states that Mia is surrounded by a number of ‘birdies’. At this point my father asks her: “The birdies, were they small or big?”

KD, with the life-affirming eagerness of a young child who wants it all, asserts, “No! Small AND Big.”

It was an enlightened comment. Living a full life includes the small and the big. Delighting in small joys while keeping your eye on the big picture is kind of the secret to everything.

Small joys aren’t that small. The first bite of a ripe peach, a song that brings back memories, your friend’s belly laughter — these can bring with them a surprising amount of happiness.

Keeping your eye on the big picture is about loosening your hold on many of the things you constantly worry about (the weird comment your boss made, the annoying scratch on your car or the rain that caught you out on a walk). It involves stepping back to remember that they will make zero difference to your life in the long run. It’s also about shifting your gaze to what actually matters.

This brings us to the next lesson KD taught me.

Have you noticed that children are truly fascinated by seeing themselves on camera for the first time? They find it miraculous that two versions of them can exist at the same time.

As a child, KD was no exception. Around the age of three, she’d frequently plead for my Dad to flip around the screen on his Sony video camera (remember when cameras had screens that did this?). She was enthralled by seeing herself on it. A large portion of videos from that stage of her life consist of her excitedly clamouring, “Turn it around! Turn it around!”

It was also good advice for life.

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