My Dad never did anything, was your Dad the same way?

teaching children confidence
a 400+ acre lake at our disposal… (Disney World lies due south on the horizon)

 

outdoor activities
many activities could happen from the Lake

 

Yesterday you read how I might be making one of the biggest mistakes of my life…

My Dad also had no visible love, nor skills, for the outdoors. We never went camping. (no sarcasm, resentment, intended nor implied)

So I asked myself, what if as a family we camped, learned, and challenged ourselves in the wild? What if we focused on confidence and citizenship as a Family?

Then there’s the issue of socialization that happens in larger groups. Not insurmountable…

(tomorrow…)

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Ever have a serious moment where you realize you may be dead wrong?

biggest mistakes
the highest hand up is ours, he’s 12

 

I could be making one of the biggest mistakes of my life – and missing an incredible Family opportunity – based on traditional, long-held paradigms.

Yesterday I wondered if Boy Scouts is the best way to teach our son confidence using the outdoors and citizenship as the classroom.

Why wouldn’t it be? That’s how I, and countless others, accomplished it as young adults.

And then I asked, why?

(tomorrow)…

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The paradox of a simple question that is hidden from most humans

meaning of life
we have bus loads of questions in life, there are only a handful of answers that matter

 

Life is full of questions. Some easy, some difficult. Some complex, some simple.

I have found the simplest questions are also the most challenging to answer… until they’re not.

If we relentlessly dog the question, it will eventually tire, and we will catch it and discover an astonishingly simple answer.

And our lives will never again be the same.

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Dear Son, someday is a day that never arrives

growth potential
nothing unlocks your potential for growth more than living each day to it’s fullest

 

Dear Son, someday is a day that never arrives.

Insight: Nothing unlocks our potential for growth more than living each day to it’s fullest.

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Guest Blogger Lorie Sheffer, Hero Worship

Philadelphia on a rainy night (photo: Lorie Sheffer)
Philadelphia on a rainy night (photo: Lorie Sheffer)

 

It’s happened again. A fallen hero is in the news.  Olympic “Blade Runner”, Oscar Pristorius stands accused of shooting and killing his girlfriend, lawyer/model Reeva Steenkamp. People are shocked; they are in a state of disbelief.

I live in South Central Pennsylvania, where Penn State football is almost the regional religion. Last year, the support for Joe Paterno began with the force of a wildfire and it continues to this day. People “KNEW Joe Pa”. Granted, they had never actually met or had any type of personal contact with the late coach, but they “KNEW and LOVED” the man. What did he know? I don’t know, because he was a stranger to me.

Lance Armstrong was a national hero for years, all the while lying about doping and actually threatening legal action against his accusers. John Edwards was by all accounts a decent family man. He also just happened to have fathered a child with his mistress while his now deceased wife was undergoing cancer treatments.

We all feel like we KNOW these famous athletes, actors, singers, religious leaders and politicians. We step to their defense if stand accused of a crime or a dramatic slip, ignoring any and all evidence that leans toward their guilt.

And yet……… How many times have we been shocked by something a close friend has done? How many people do we know whose marriage has fallen victim to betrayal? If people who we actually do know, actually do interact with, can sometimes do something we find totally out of character, then why do we feel as if we intimately KNOW what a total stranger will or will not do or be capable of?

Maybe we long for someone who is beyond reproach.  Maybe we are projecting what we wish these mortals were, instead of understanding that they are human beings with human failings; human beings with sometimes superhuman talents and abilities, but humans all the same. Sometimes they aren’t very heroic at all. Maybe instead of trying to create a hero in a total stranger, we should strive to BE more of what we are searching for.

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