Why We Quarrel
A childcare center held a book exhibition featuring books written by its six-year-olds. Among the many books about space, dinosaurs, cars, and other topics, one child’s two-page book caught my eye. It was titled “The Snowman.”
“Hey, stop teasing me! It hurts my feelings!”
On a snowy day,
the snowmen in Snowman Village have different hearts.
Later, they all get along.
As I spend my days with children, hardly ten minutes pass without some little incident. They argue because two of them want to play with the same toy, because one child accidentally damages another’s belongings, or because someone wants to join in but cannot. The reasons may differ, but perhaps the root of these quarrels is just as the child wrote: their hearts are different.
Life has its moments of hurt, hardship, and conflict. Whenever I find myself in such a situation, I try to remember the world as seen through the eyes of a child. I remind myself that, for now, the other person and I simply feel differently, and trust that in time, we will get along again.
