what keeps calling your child's name?

Jun 13
2 min read

Hello Beautiful Soul,

One of the simplest ways to begin trusting a child is to pay attention to what keeps calling their name.

Not literally, of course.

I'm talking about the interests, activities, questions, and experiences that they return to again and again.

The child who spends every afternoon outside collecting rocks.

The child who asks endless questions about animals.

The child who fills notebook after notebook with stories.

The child who takes apart every gadget they can get their hands on.

The child who dances whenever music comes on.

The child who wants to care for every living thing they encounter.

As adults, we sometimes dismiss these interests because they seem small or ordinary.

"It's just a phase."

"They'll grow out of it."

"They need to focus on something more practical."

But what if these repeated interests are not random?

What if they are clues?

Children rarely have the language to explain why they are drawn to something. They simply feel the pull. Something inside them comes alive. Their attention becomes focused. Time disappears. They become completely absorbed in what they are doing.

This is one of the ways heartstrings reveal themselves.

The challenge is that many of us were taught to ignore our own.

Perhaps you loved art but were encouraged to focus on academics.

Perhaps you loved writing but were told it wasn't practical.

Perhaps you loved being outdoors but spent most of your time indoors.

Many adults carry stories about the things they once loved but eventually abandoned.

Without realizing it, we sometimes pass those same stories on to our children.

We encourage what seems useful.

We discourage what seems uncertain.

Yet some interests refuse to disappear.

They keep returning.

Again and again.

Not because a child is stubborn, but because something meaningful is trying to express itself.

This doesn't mean every childhood interest becomes a career. The child who loves dinosaurs doesn't have to become a paleontologist. The child who loves soccer doesn't have to become a professional athlete.

The purpose of following heartstrings isn't necessarily to arrive somewhere.

The purpose is to become more fully ourselves.

When a child follows what fascinates them, they develop persistence, creativity, confidence, problem-solving skills, and self-awareness. They learn what it feels like to be engaged from within rather than motivated from the outside.