A little tiger roar travels down the hall from the kitchen. Ary the tiger is making breakfast with her dad and there's a 90% chance she's wearing leopard print pants with shoes on the wrong feet. I've been living with my 2 year old niece for almost 4 months. She wears my high heels. I taught her how to pull the chair over to the refrigerator so she could get her own water. She likes playing piano with me. We crawl on all fours in the kitchen and pretend to be tigers. I get to be the older wiser auntie tiger that lets the little cub climb all over her and growl in her ear with all her baby tiger might. My favorite part is when I decide to shock and surprise the little cub and let out full grown roar. The little cub falls back, half terrified in giggles...then she springs back with another growl as big as she can muster.
Just to be clear, I'm talking a FULL HEARTED roar. I'm not a releasing a weak "meow...I'm pretending to be a tiger but really I'm an insecure human trying to entertain a kid" kinda sound. NO! I mean, a ROOOARRR! so strong the neighbors might hear. It outside my comfort zone. The guys might hear me (although they probably are so focused on League of Legends that they won't notice). I push myself to just do it. The first time is awkward but it feels kinda good so I try again. Louder. Liberating! Again, I ROAR! I don't remember the last time I truly pretended to be an animal like this. I feel like I've unleashed a part of me that was tamed many years ago. I see Ary roaring wholeheartedly. I don't want her to lose that freedom of expression that comes so easily to her now. If I hold back, she'll start copying me and one day she'll be holding back too, thinking that that's what we're supposed to do. No! I must not hold back. For her, I must rise and show her what a ROARING woman looks like so she can grow into one herself! Adulthood should bring power to your roar, not timidity! My desire to be a good example for Ary gives me the courage to leave my comfort zone; to gather up my adult power and combine it with my childlike free spirit. As the tigress I have no insecurities, self-doubt or weird passive aggressive shit going on that human women often bring to the table when rearing their young. I feel grounded, confident and strong. I know who I am and I roar with confidence. I play with the cub, showing her how it's done, encouraging her, keep growling as loud and proud as you can until you do it like me.
**After writing this blog post I walked out into the kitchen and YES! she was wearing a full cheetah print outfit! #win
by Whitney L Johnson. I'm reading it right now and grabbed this gold nugget: "In dreaming we teach our children how to dream."