It was painting that finally helped Winston Churchill slow down and learn how to see. He had been so busy, so ambitious, that he had not cultivated the eye or the discipline to slow down and really look at the world. Artistic hobbies can do that for you.
Parenting can have the same effect. Nothing cultivates your eye quite like games of “I Spy” in the car. Helicopters have been flying overhead your whole life, but it was only when your son or daughter became obsessed with them that you started to really notice. Do you think Sandra Day O’Connor went out and gathered cicadas before she was a parent and grandparent? No, it was the act of sending them off to curious children that got her to appreciate this gross but fascinating bit of nature.
The things our kids like, the joy we take in their joy—it forces us to slow down. To notice. To develop an eye. Because we want to point things out. We want them to see. So we pay closer attention than ever before. We keep our eyes peeled wider than ever before. We slow down in a way that, if left to our own devices, we never would.
And for that we must be grateful.