Some of you may know that I named my youngest son Carnegie.

He’s 3 years old.

This morning I was sitting there meditating with my cup of coffee, waiting patiently for a blog post idea to come to my mind. I was absorbed into this process.

Suddenly, the door opened and there was Carnegie, coming to greet me as he does every morning.

So I had the following brief dialog with him.

“Hey Carnegie, good morning!”

“Good morning.”

Carnegie usually takes his thumb out of his mouth when he talks, but sometimes, especially just after waking up, he just talks around his thumb.

I’m beginning to believe that children choose their own parents. So always feel honored, flattered, grateful, blessed, and humbled whenever I’m around my kids, and I let them know.

“Thank you for coming into my life!”

“You’re welcome.”

We just sat there together for a while. Often when we sit, I’m in silent awe, adoration, and appreciation.

“Carnegie, what should I write about this morning?”

“Um, ‘Carnegie loves Daddy.’”

“O.K., I will. Thank you.”

So, that was that.  No thought to it.  Kids are like that.  The question is, do we dare to listen?

In the time that I’ve known him, I’ve learned a lot from Carnegie. There’s this one thing he does that’s particularly instructive. Fascinating, really.

Whenever someone tells him, “I love you,” he just says “thank you.”

You know, when most people say “I love you” the other person says “I love you too,” right?

But what about first just absorbing and receiving the gift that was given?

“Thank you” will do nicely, right? That’s what I learned from him.

And what about the other way around? When we say “I love you” don’t we normally expect the other person to say, “Me too”? Is it truly a gift, or do we expect something back as in a transactional trade? The delight of a real gift, after all, is in the giving, not in the trade, right?

No one taught Carnegie that, and he just does it without blinking.

He also just says, “I love you” unexpectedly, seemingly at random and out of the blue to the people he loves.

To him it’s not really out of the blue at all, of course. Like most small kids, he’s much more in touch with his non-physical self.

We adults used to be like that, before we were forced — through years of schooling and parenting and conditioning — to conform.  Why?  So that people who weren’t comfortable with themselves in the first place could feel more comfortable at our expense?

Now we’re spending our time in the self-help sections of libraries and bookstores and at workshops and seminars trying to unlearn all that mess. And paying for it!

One place to start is to just receive compliments well. Why is that important? Because how you do anything is how you do everything. If you can’t receive a small compliment or an “I love you” very well, then how can you be ready to receive the abundance of the universe very well?

So today, if someone says or does something nice, just say “Thank you.”

No more, no less.

“Thank you” will do nicely.

One last thing I have to say is, “Thanks Carnegie, for a great idea.” :-)