[it’s magic or something]

pt. 1 | noodles
I was seven years old when I threw my first noodle against a wall just to watch it stick. I had spent the day at a friend’s house and their mother grabbed one right out of the boiling water with her fork. “Hmm…” she said. And to my surprise, she threw the noodle across the room.

After seeing my reaction, she laughed and let me give it a go.

Now that I’m older, I’m the one catching children by surprise during dinner. And I’m the one allowing them the opportunity to throw their first noodle against a wall just to watch it stick.

Showing is always more powerful than telling.

pt. 2 | sticky notes
A few years ago, I found myself riddled with guilt over an argument I’d had with my kid over desserts before dinner. It would have been easier to move past it, but I didn’t feel right about it. So I extended an olive branch.

I didn’t make a show of it, or explain myself. I didn’t ask for an apology from her, though one would’ve been nice and warranted. I didn’t tell her to apologize to me. I just quietly stuck the note to the couch where she was sitting and I went about doing the dishes.

When I came back, there it was, waiting for me. Another blue note. Another olive branch.

Showing is always more powerful than telling.

pt.3 | magic
Last summer, I watched a young girl correctly guess the ending to a story she’d never read, pages before she was through. After confirming her prediction, she proclaimed in awe at herself, “Woah! It must be magic or something!”

But it wasn’t magic. She’d spent an entire summer with clinicians (myself included, as I supervise literacy intervention) who were modeling how to pull meaning from pictures, memories, and the spaces between words. This little girl had witnessed countless people making predictions every single day for nearly six weeks.

Yet here she was, trying it on her own. And succeeding. Like it was magic or something.

But maybe she was right. It is magic. Being able to witness each other’s possibilities and try them out for ourselves. We only need someone to show us the possibilities exist.

Because just like magicians, the magic is in the showing, not the telling.

Half-Read Recommendation

I may never finish another book ever again so long as I live, but I sure know how to start ‘em.

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Dog-eared at page: 464/464(!)

I’m really going to wreck my brand here, but… I’m fully finished.

I couldn’t stop. I was like a little kid, reading with a flashlight under the covers as my husband snored. I haven’t slept in weeks, stealing time from myself to finish.

I need a nap. And Book 2.

don’t tell them. show them.
until next time. - cd