“Daddy…can we donate Fooly?” My five year old little girl asked me, with tears in her eyes, first thing this morning.
“Fooly” is a white stuffed animal that she’s had for as long as I can remember. It is her absolute favorite. For the longest time, she won’t go to sleep without 2 things: her favorite blanket (which she affectionately calls in Chinese “Pei Pei” which stands for “blanket”), and Fooly.
“Donate Fooly?? Why would you want to do that sweetheart?”
She held up Fooly for me to see. There was a hole that’s been ripped open.
“Oh, that’s okay sweetie, Mommy can sew Fooly back up. He’ll be good as new in no time.”
“I know, Daddy, but it will be owie for Fooly if Mommy sew him up. Can we not throw him out? Can we donate him?” She’s crying now.
All of a sudden I understood her logic: She knows that we have a habit of throwing out broken or worn out toys. If choosing to keep Fooly means Fooly getting hurt, she’d rather let him go.
Wow.
How is it that sometimes children understands how life works much more than we do? Sometimes my daughter serves as a daily reminder to me of some of the most profound yet most forgotten truths in life:
Sometimes letting go rather than holding on is the most loving thing to do.
As adult, we have made it our ultimate life mission to hold on, to own, to accumulate, to stockpile…
We measure success by the number of “wins” we accumulate. But I have learned that the truest measure of success is not the number of wins you have, but the number of times you have failed…and keep trying.
We define wealth by how much we own. But the truely “richest” people I know are those who have given the most away.
After reassuring her that Mommy is really good at fixing things, and it won’t hurt Fooly a bit if she sew him up, my little girl seemed relieved.
I came home tonight after a late dinner meeting for work. I came upstairs to find my little girl beaming with joy. “Look Daddy! Mommy fixed Fooly! I have asked Mommy to knit him a hat, because it gets cold in my room, you know!”
Later on, I went over to check on her. I saw her nicely tugged in with “Pei Pei” and Fooly by her side.
I thought of what she remined me of today: Sometimes letting go rather than holding on is the most loving thing to do.
I looked at her, and I knew that one day, down the road, it will be my turn to let her go…
I just hope that when that day comes, I will remember what she taught me today.
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