I decided to check out my blog today, just to see what was up. In the corner was an icon I hadn’t seen before (or it was so long ago, I didn’t recognize it). It was a trophy… weird. I clicked on it, and was surprised with a “Happy Anniversary” message from WordPress… Kidstuph was born (registered) 6 years ago.
This has me thinking… 6 years… over 125 posts, visitors from 70 countries, hundreds of comments, over 10000 pageviews, subjects from lemons to sermons to Calvin & Hobbes. Most of what happens from Kidstuph, at least as far as who is reading and how it is touching people is hidden from me. Every now and then I get a comment, or someone telling me how important Kidstuph is to them (thank you Mom and Lorraine 🙂 ), but I don’t write for accolades… I write because I love sharing my heart, I love writing, and I love connecting with people through my writing. People like Estrella, Gina, and of course my friend and writing mentor, J Clement Wall :-).
As I think back over the years, I am pretty confident that I have grown in my writing, expanded my concepts that I was willing to tackle, and at the same time, I have so much to learn. I have always stuck to personal and/or spiritual things, but have never attempted to lend my writing abilities to my work… maybe because… well, maybe because of every reason and fear in the world – who knows… maybe I just never did it. I have focused on what I was comfortable and confident in – what I knew I could easily write about, even if the process of constructing each entry was tough. Subjects like wisdom, love, hope – those come relatively easy for me to write about, even if I am struggling to experience them at the moment. I think it is because I believe in them, and as such they become beacons and benchmarks for me… lighthouses if you will, to help guide me back to a balanced center in this crazy roller coaster journey we call life.
A couple months ago, I was sitting in one of my favorite coffee shops, and I was joined at the counter by a 6 year old. We were both regulars there, so he was pretty comfortable with me. As we sat there eating fries and drinking tea, he asked me, “why is your skin that color?” Ah, the mind, innocence and boldness of a 6 year old :-). I was only taken aback because I wasn’t expecting the question. Personally I thought it was cute, and reminded me of a situation with my daughter when she was about that age. Right now, he sees the world in a certain way, but as he grows up, his world view will change, and so will his questions. The color of my skin won’t matter too much to him – at least I hope it won’t. He will be more interested in developing relationships, understanding business, caring for his family, seeking out his destiny… as I think about him now, I wonder what I can do to help influence his worldview and passion so he can become a force for positive change and life, but that is the subject of a future blog post…
6 year olds are great because they have a grasp of complex thoughts, are willing to engage older people in conversation, and have the energy to light a small city :-). They are also great because they are growing… they won’t stay 6 forever, and for them, they don’t want to stay 6 one more second… they want to grow up, do more stuff, take on more, be more…
So Kidstuph is 6…
And it doesn’t want to stay 6 any longer than it has to. There are more challenges to overcome, more life to see and experience, more people to meet… There is a great big world out there that is calling to be visited, to be touched, to have relationship with, to share love with. According to Infoplease, there are 196 official countries out there, so Kidstuph still has work to do. The world is seeing what the news and politicians are portraying, and according to them, the state of our fair planet looks pretty grim… what can this 6 year old do, when it matures to tackle the state of the Big Blue Ball? Who knows, but that’s the great thing about a 6 year old… 6 year olds are still innocent enough that they can dream big, and not be jaded by what they see on TV… They are not only willing to believe that superheroes live among them… they believe that they can be that superhero. 
I can’t tell you what this means yet for Kidstuph. I can say that the progress of Kidstuph will continue. We will sit together at the table, and ask the questions that are important… we will share our fries together, and we will get to know this world we live in… together.
Thank you for walking with me for the past 6 years, and for the years to come.
Notable Notables
6 years ago, not only did Kidstuph start, but this video showed up on Youtube. Talk about a positive kid… she can make you want to take on the day (the second one is the deleted scene… priceless 🙂 ):
Did my long comment post?
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No, just the one
Ken: you are such an inspiration for me and so many others. Your thoughts, comments, and experiences are constantly changing my life for many years. What ever subject you decide to write on i will certainly be first in line to read.