I want so many things for my children.

They aren’t what I typically hear other parents say.

I don’t fantasize about my children being grown up and married with kids. I don’t daydream that they’ll have good paying jobs. I don’t envision them always bringing home As.

This isn’t to say that I don’t want these things for my girls, or that these aren’t lovely aspirations. But what I want for my kids is much simpler.

I want things like this:

I want them to be honest. I want them to be so honest that sometimes they feel they’ve shared and bared too much.

I want them to be confident. I want them to know (and demand) their worth.

I want them to find happiness. I want my children to continue to see joy in seemingly insignificant hiding places inside of our ordinary lives.

I want them to know that they are not ordinary. I want them to understand that none of us are—we are all special and valuable in our own heroic ways.

I want them to take care of their bodies. I want them to recognize that we eat healthy foods and move our bodies because they house our souls.

I want them to love. I want them to know that learning to show and receive love begins within ourselves.

I want them to work. I do hope that they have enjoyable jobs that support a good life, but what I want so much more than this is for my children to appreciate that life requires effort—to appreciate working hard at everything we do regardless of potential rewards.

I want them to be proud. I don’t mean pride as in arrogance or conceit. Rather, I refer to pride in who they are as individuals—I want them to refuse to allow society’s judgments or stigmas to color their own self-perception and, more, their own sense of self-worth.

So, yes, I want many things for my children. Yet none of these things come with price tags, paper certificates or even public recognition.

Because it’s true that a life well lived begins with knowing who we are, and accepting what we find.

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Editor: Travis May

Photo:  Pink Sherbet Photography/Flickr.