Lessons learned from Candy Land...

My boy wanted to play Candy Land today. So we got out the game and sat down to play. Now... keep in mind he is three years old and he hasn't quite figured out how to play the game "exactly right" just yet. He started out really well, drawing a card and moving his little player to the right space. But about halfway through the game he became way more interested in drawing the cards with the pictures on them rather than the colored square. "But mom, I want to go visit the lollipop girl" or "I want to go see the candy cane forest." He had completely lost interest in trekking along and making it to the end of the game, but wanted to jump around and see the sights, regardless of if it put him back to square one.

At one point I caught myself wanting to say, "No, that's not how the game is played. You need to make it to the end, to the castle." The point of the game is not to go see all these other sites.... or is it?

My own little life flashed before my eyes. Here we are, in our eighth year of marriage. We do not live in a fancy big house, or have a fancy car. My husband is not well established in his career, but about to finish his second bachelor degree. We have not gone about our lives going from one colored square to the next, but have been jumping around the board for quite some time here. Some of our adventures have been grand, such as moving to Hawaii in lieu of settling down and getting established. Some adventures were not what we had planned or wanted {such as landing on the Liquorish Forest and having to go back to the beginning of the game}. But they have still been adventures, and the journey has still been a great lesson in life to us.

I look at some of our friends and family members who are way advanced in the Candy Land game and seem to be almost at "the castle" so to speak. Pulling all the practical cards and moving along. We have not taken that path. Many times I've wanted to but that is not how it has worked out for us either by our own choice or by the card we happened to draw, and that's okay.

So which is the better way to play the game? Working hard to get to "the castle" or jumping around and taking time to see all the sights? I think they are both right for different reasons and for different people.

So we played Candy Land a little differently today. We did visit the gumdrop troll looking guy, and Mrs. Peanutbrittle. We sailed down the Rainbow bridge and spent some time in the Candy Cane forest. I hope that as I continue to teach and mother my boy that I remember that there is not only one way to play any game. That however he wants to play the game, or his life, we are here for him, and want to go along for the ride.