Holiday Gift Ideas for Teens – Soul Connection Bracelets

My friend Cindy Loughran is a skilled coach and facilitator with particular expertise in supporting people through change… something any parent of teenagers know something about. I love her New Leaf Touchstone bracelets, which can make a particularly meaningful holiday gift. I asked Cindy to share her thoughts about their relevance to parents and teenagers. Here is her contribution:

One of the hardest things about being a parent is watching your child when she is in pain. You know, the pain caused by a broken heart, not making a team, struggling with homework, being homesick when she’s away. The temptation is often to swoop in and help, to come to the rescue and save the day. When I’m tempted to do that, I remember the story of the Chrysalis.

The Chrysalis: This is the story of a caterpillar that spins itself into its cocoon as part of the natural process of becoming a butterfly. The cocoon sits, appearing to be doing nothing for a period of time and, when it is ready to emerge in its transformed state, it begins to move. On one such occasion, a woman, sitting nearby, noticed the cocoon moving and watched. As she watched, a crack appeared in the cocoon, slowly becoming bigger and bigger. Then the cocoon was still for a while; and then the movement began again. This went on for a while. Finally, the woman saw what appeared to be the tip of a wing emerging through the crack. She watched, spellbound as whatever was inside struggled to emerge.

After what seemed to the woman like a very long time, she decided to provide some assistance. She reached over, picked up the cocoon and very gently, opened it up so that the butterfly could be freed.

The butterfly tried to fly away but it could not. It soon fell to the ground and died.

You see, the struggle to emerge from the cocoon is all part of a necessary process. It serves to make the butterfly’s wings strong enough to carry it along once it has emerged from its shell. Without going through that process, the wings don’t gain the strength they need to survive and the butterfly dies.

As hard as it is, we need to let our children struggle, work through their challenges and their pain. The best we can do is to be there with them and for them and love them. And, we can’t be there with them physically all of the time. New Leaf Touchstone Bracelets can be a great token of our presence and our love in those times when we can’t be there to (or our kids won’t let us) wrap our arms around them.

When you each wear identical, ‘Soul Connection’ bracelets, you can know that you are expressing your love and support to her, and she can look down, or touch her bracelet and know that your love and support are with her, giving her the strength and confidence to endure and succeed on her journey.

New Leaf Touchstone bracelet - one of many styles

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