My 6-year-old daughter was eating mint chip ice cream when she bit something hard.
My daughter had lost her first tooth.
It was an important milestone, but she was sad.
I asked, “Earlier you said that you didn’t want to lose your wiggly tooth because you were worried about how it might look.”
She said, “It’s not that, dad. I just don’t like change.”
Interesting, coming from a six-year-old. It reminded me of something my colleague said recently to students transitioning from high school to college, and I had my daughter repeat it.
With change comes opportunity.
Losing a tooth that you’ve had for most of your life is hard. It may hurt a little. It may bleed a little. You look into a mirror and things have changed. You may be sad. You may be scared. The gap is wide. The hole is deep. The wound is tender. But you’ve made way for something bigger, something better, something stronger. And when you realize it, you smile a little differently.
Teaching Michael Fleming 
Very true and an important lesson for us all to learn. Great post!
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Thanks for your comment. I look forward to reading your blog.
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Amazing post Michael! You take complex ideas and break them down into memorable stories. It uplifted my day!
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Thanks for the comment. Another memorable part of the story I didn’t mention was that my daughter brushed her lost tooth so it would be nice and clean for the tooth fairy.
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Ella get used to change! Did you tell her that all of her teeth are going to fall out? Better not, one tooth at a time and one change at a time is all we can handle. Thanks for giving us this wisdom from your children.
Aaron
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Good point about one change at a time, Aaron. Also, I often feel my kids teach me more about life than I teach them.
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