“It doesn’t matter if the water is warm or cold if you are going to have to wade through it anyway.” -Pierre Teilhard Chardin

My Annie is a hesitant school attendee; her leaning issues makes her hours there more work. But we are on year 8 of K-8 school, 6^th grade, and she’s more adept every fall.

To help her, I’ve been pushing the idea of a mantra for quite a long time now. Maybe she uses a mantra, maybe not. But when she is stressed, I want her to know she has it within her to get through those hard moments. So on our walk up to school, I often ask her what her mantra for the day is. I offer her an example, usually, “I’m awesome.”

I did that this morning and then asked her what mantra she would be using. She pushes back at this idea, mumbling about not needing one before telling me, “I am myself.”

I ask her if I can borrow that one. It reminds me of the professional who works with kids with ADHD and anxiety who I interviewed last week. He noted that everyone has anxiety, no one walks through this world without experiencing anxiety sometimes. We can find tools that help us do the tasks that come covered with a sheen of angst. But we are always ourselves, my Annie tells me. She’ll get through each hard moment as herself, and she is enough. I am myself. It is enough. Annie’s got this.