Got Curiosity?

My Grandma used to wrap presents in newspaper. In the opening, my fingers would be covered in smeary black smudge, but as a kid who cared? My Grandma didn’t much care either, which is why she didn’t spend time buying pretty wrapping. What was important to her was the giving.

Now I look back and both chuckle and endear the memories of gifts covered with my black fingerprints. The receiving of the gift also had my mark on it.

Curiosity, to me, is like those black smudged gifts.

There was once a day I did not want a child with Down syndrome until I birthed a child with Down syndrome. I got as curious as I have ever been in my life that day Wil was born.

My experiences were messy. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Oh, I had advice. Lots and lots, but even in our community of parents raising kids with Ds, we laugh together about how what works one day likely won’t work the next.

Our culture also draws hard lines about what is right and wrong. But maybe, with experience, those lines may be smudgier than you realized.

No matter how much we know, or think we know, think back on all those smudgy experiences that led you to your beliefs today. Allow space for curiosity in yourself, allow space for curiosity in others.

Sometimes unwrapping the best gifts are when we have to get our fingers dirty first.