Made to Gallop

“I was made to run,” Ishaan said. 

He sprinted to the end of the field, turned around, and ran back in our direction.

“I was made to run. What were you made to do?” he asked me. 

It had been a long day. From the minute mine started – with unloading the dishwasher and making the beds – to this present moment where my kids were looking to me for entertainment and games and races to the other side of the field.

“I was made to walk,” I said, smiling at his overeager face, indirectly communicating that I wasn’t about to race him. This mama was taking it slow. 

He put his hands on Riyu’s shoulders and said, “Did you know mama made you?” 

His little three-year old brother stopped moving and turned in the other direction, clearly wanting to be free of the restraint. 

Ishu chased after him. “Mama made you! Mama made you! Were you made to run or walk?” he asked.

Riyu looked at Ishu with a completely straight face and responded, “I was made to gallop.” 

Ishu and I looked at each other and laughed. Riyaan, completely unaware of how comical he was being. Ishu, while he did laugh at his brother’s response, didn’t fully grasp the beautiful metaphor hidden in that statement.

He was made to gallop. 

It is so very Riyu. 

He is not going to be put in a box, thank you very much. 

You can give him two choices and he will find a third. You can tell him there’s a way to do something, but he’ll come up with his own. Even at three, he seems to understand that there’s more than one way to move through the world.

No clue what this kid’s gonna be when he grows up. But I hope he never loses the instinct to do things his own way.

Some people are made to run.

Some are meant to walk. 

But Riyu?

He was made to gallop.