We all grow. Once conceived the first thing we do is grow, cell after cell. When we're born our body keeps growing. We sometimes have grow-spurts, we sometimes grow at a lower rate, at one point in time our body stops growing.
We sometimes have growing pains. Especially during a grow-spurt.
When I was 8 - 9 years old I grew very fast and my bones started to hurt. The bones in my legs, even the bones in my arms.
Sister Oei (local district nurse checking the development progress of all primary school children once a year) explained to me very simple and clear why that was. She used a chart, showing the 'average' growth rate of children and my personal growth rate. My 'line' was way ahead of the game.
"Most other children will catch-up with you eventually" she said "They just grow slower than you do, you're in a grow spurt, that's normal, that happens.
Your bones hurt because they grow very fast and the rest of your legs and arms - all the other bits besides your bones - are trying to keep up. And sometimes that doesn't happen fast enough. They get 'over-stretched' like a elastic band when you pull both ends very far apart. A elastic band can break at one point if you over-stretch it to much, this won't happen with your legs. Your bones know when it is time to rest a while, so your skin and all the other bits have time to 'catch-up' with it."
I liked her story very much and waited patiently for my other bits to catch-up. The growing pain receded, the bits settled around my bones and everything was fine. Until the next grow-spurt when I was around 13 - 14 years. I didn't mind it that much, Sister Oei's comforting story was still with me.
We grow with a stop/start effect.
Mentally we grow also, sometimes fast, sometimes slow and sometimes we have growing pains. We have grown so fast we've grown out of our comfort zone. So we stop until the overstretched boundaries become our new comfort zone.
Then we start growing again.
We grow with a stop/start effect.
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