What Happened?

Throughout the past several weeks I have found myself answering the same question over and over again.

“What happened, mama?”

I have a toddler who has a keen sense of attunement and deep curiosity, and so many, many times a day I’m asked this question.

Sometimes, towards the end of the day, I get overwhelmed with answering this question over and over again. But, I realized, wouldn’t it be nice if this was asked more often by all of us?

Amid a contentious presidential transition, politics is an unavoidable topic. And rarely do I see it discussed without tense, fighting language which leads to defensive rebuttals, and the cycle just keeps going and going.

But, what if we were more driven to ask “what happened” or “why”, with the genuine curiosity my son asks me multiple times a day?

What if we took accusations and assumptions and traded those out for authentic wonder and compassionate curiosity?

Perhaps our two-sided political parties are too far against each other to go back to that, but my son reminds me of the peace and contentment that can come when we are genuinely curious and stay attuned to hear an explanation.