On a recent Tuesday, my twelve-month old son started walking. I came home exhausted from a long day at work to see little Yaakov Kopel waddling around the house as if he owned the place. My exhaustion was quickly forgotten. I observed for a while, had him chase me a little, and savored the milestone, trying to commit the moment to memory.

Truth be told, Yaakov had actually taken his first steps several weeks earlier, and had progressively been taking more and more steps ever since. But until this day, he had not considered walking as a serious means of transportation. He had considered using his two feet to move around as an adventure, a challenge, and perhaps most importantly a way of eliciting tons of positive attention from his parents and siblings -- who would form a cheerleading choir: Alein, alein, alein... Yaakov Kopel gait alein... ("Yaakov Kopel is walking on his own..."). But when he actually had to get somewhere, he would scoot down on all fours and crawl to his destination.

Something must have clicked in his mind that Tuesday. Walking wasn't a hobby anymore. His crawling days were behind him.

When G‑d formed the body of man, He was guided by one primary objective. This body was to be inhabited and vivified by a unique human soul. They would have to seamlessly fuse. As such, the body, and every one of its components, had to be perfectly compatible with its life-energy.

One of the unique characteristics of the human body is its erect posture. This mirrors a basic human-soul quality: its mind's ability to control its emotions and passions. Cognitive abilities are based in the brain, while the heart is the seat of emotions. The fact that the human head towers above the heart symbolizes the mind's supremacy -- the human's innate ability to act based on need (the person's need as well as what he or she is needed for) as opposed to impulse.

Though this is a basic human skill, the dominion of the mind does not come easily, it requires much work and discipline. We all start out crawling on all fours, with head and heart more or less on same plane, and then -- hopefully -- we slowly progress and start walking upright.

The challenge, however, is to ensure that moving while vertical doesn't remain a "hobby," relegated to inspired moments when we are not feeling kvetchy, and when we have an audience of admiring onlookers.

If when we really need to get somewhere, in the course of our navigation of life's pathways, we comfortably revert to crawling, using our emotions as our compass, then we have not yet maximized our human capabilities.

Cute idea, no? Maybe for you. To me this is much more than cute; it's my son's milestone.

Think of how proud our Father must be when we finally master the ability to truly walk, to truly become movers.