Thankfulness – Page 14 – Disney Leadership Keynote Speaker

Midlife Traditions

Midlife traditions, Father-Son Traditions. Traditions are simply one more way to be mindful of all we have to be thankful for. Here’s the second of seven Father Son traditions, from November 18.

“One, two, three.”

Through the years, I’ve met people who do things that capture my attention. Little things usually. Seemingly insignificant actually. Some are not good and others are brilliant.

This one is from Leslie (her real name). She and her daughter had a tradition that was easy to do and could be creativity extended beyond their particular use.

Leslie would gently, and randomly, squeeze her daughter’s hand – first one time, pause, then twice, pause, then finally three times. This meant, “I – Love – You.”

After initiating this when our son was about two years old, I started to experiment with other ways:

Blink once, pause, blink twice, pause, blink three times
With a hand resting on his knee, squeezing it the same as his hand
Hugging, the same process
Using fingers – hold up one finger, then two, then three
Writing a note, “1 – 2 – 3”

The beauty of these is in their simplicity and repeatability. That’s the secret to a lasting midlife tradition.

Got Thanks?

Was gonna continuing posting about Father Son traditions, but last night read a relative’s email that challenged her Facebook friends:

“Every day until Thanksgiving, think of one thing that you are thankful for and post it under your status. The longer you do it, the harder it gets! If you think you can do it, repost this message as your status to invite others to the challenge:)”

Her challenge is very interesting and compels me to ask: “Can you do it? Can you write a weeks’ worth (seven) of things you are thankful for?”

Maybe you can. Hopefully you can. But will you?

Because if you will start right now, and go through Thanksgiving, how cool would that be? And then, do one more step – never stop.

Bear Hug

Are you thankful for the seemingly overwhelming obstacles that appear in front of you? Many times, I’ve finally come to learn, the solutions are simple.

What began as anger turned into an amazing blessing.

Bear hugs began about seven years ago when I was struggling to adapt to a new rule our son’s child care provider put in place.

My wife takes our son to day care, I pick him up. Upon arrival, the first thing I’d do is scoop him up and give him a hug. In many cases, I had not seen him (awake) since the day before.

The new policy change had you remain in your vehicle as your child was placed in their car seat. You never got out of the car. Some parents liked this.

I did not. In fact, it made me really pissed off angry. Fuming mad.

Solutions are often simple and many times, come from unlikely sources. A friend, gay and never ever ging to be a parent, gave me the best parenting solution.

He said, “After you pick up your son, why don’t you drive around the corner, park, get out, and do your bear hug?”

Duh! It was the perfect solution. Perfect.

There have been a few days where we are several miles from his school when one of us realizes we didn’t do our bear hug. Do we wait until we get home? Nope.

What overwhelming challenge have you had that turned into one of your biggest mid life blessings?

Father Son Traditions

Yesterday, you heard a promise. Here it is, the traditions a mid life Father put in place, using a lion’s share of midlife creativity. It would be easy to discount their value, because they are so simple.

Bear Hug
One, two, three
Twistee Treat Day
Food For Families
Dinner Prayer
You’ll never get in trouble for being honest
If you lined up all the boys in the world….

What simple, repeatable traditions do is ingrain key messages. Simple messages. Life altering messages.

While we are insanely busy, we all have one life to live. We ought to be insanely thankful for that, and then set out to make the most of it.

PS. If you regularly follow Mid Life Celebration, you already know there’s a really strong chance each tradition will be explained in future posts, maybe as soon as tomorrow. And if f you’re new here, welcome.

Mid Life Creativity

Do you ever have moments, seasons, or even longer stages of life where you question many things? Or maybe you find yourself lost and confused. Or, overwhelmed.

Mid Life creativity is critical in moving from a mid life crisis to a mid life celebration. Several times yesterday, I thought about it being Monday. Monday is “Twistee Treat Day”. And so is Friday.

Seemingly insignificant, or trivial, at first glance, isn’t it?

You see, as a mid-life father of a nine-year old, in many ways, I was a “fish out of water” when our son was born.

What to do, right? Well, it seemed like a good idea to find small ways to create lasting memories (traditions).

Perhaps the main reason this is challenging for me is because, when I tried to recall these things with my Dad and my Grandfather, I was coming up empty. Both men loved me and I loved them.

I just simply don’t remember any special things that we did together.

Tomorrow I’ll share a creative mid-life list of some of the things that are so simple, and yet so significant, that they will last life time. Who wouldn’t want that?