Two simple choices:
- Ease up and just deal with whatever comes your way
- Proactively, relentlessly pursue a cure
They both have pros and cons.
Welcome to life – the real world.
What Would You Do?
Tag: Son
Promise Me
Have you ever done something you weren’t supposed to do? And in order to do it, you had to do it in a sneaky way? And often, there was a close friend who had already done the thing, and they helped you?
Smoking, drinking, stealing, bad pranks, and so on.
Seriously, these are things adults do not make a conscious effort to teach children. Can you imagine a Mother saying, “Come here son, it’s time you learned how to smoke cigarettes.”
Heard a Chantix commercial last night. Chantix helps smokers quit. Let me set the scene:
Mom comes on saying, “I smoked a pack a day for 25 years. I could not quit smoking, no matter how hard I tried.”
Until one day……
“I told my son to promise me he would never start smoking.”
He said, “Promise me you’ll quit.”
And the Cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon. Little boy blue and the man in the moon……he turned out just like me…..my boy was just like me….
People Were Thankful
The Families we visited yesterday were very thankful for the Food donations that were delivered:
We visited an upscale home for the first time in ten years. My son and I received warm and grateful greetings at every stop. One man even gave me a big hug.
I reminded our son (9) why we started this “three-times-a-year Food For Families tradition” ten years ago.
“If two boys are standing next to an adult, and one uses his manners and the other doesn’t which one do you think the adult will trust more?”
“If two adults say serving others is important, but one actually does and the other only hopes to one day, which one do you think God will say, well done?”
In telling our son why we do this, even though it may seem small, we are actually preparing ourselves to do more. By putting others first every Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter morning, we are developing a habit similar to using manners.
We are cultivating good habits. That’s all we can really ask of ourselves, isn’t it?
Thanksgiving Tradition Cancelled?
“Dad, would you cancel Thanksgiving?”, my son responded brilliantly to my serious-sounding question.
I had just antagonistically asked him, “We don’t need to go to Twistee Treat today. I mean, we can skip one Monday. It’s no big deal, right? What’s one Monday?”
Five years ago, I spontaneously suggested to our son, as we were leaving his school, that we stop by Twistee Treat on the way home. “Let’s get some ice cream and celebrate a great week and kick off a great weekend ahead.”
What child turns down ice cream, right? The very next Friday, as we where leaving his school, he asked, “Are we getting ice cream?” We all know how this turned out.
Every Friday, for more than a year, was Twistee Treat day.
Until one casual Monday, when I said, “Why don’t we go to Twistee Treat and celebrate the great weekend we just had and kick off the week ahead?”
So here we are, five years later. Do you think he’ll have trouble recalling ice cream with his Dad? I mean, for as long as he lives?
Busy Midlife Slacker?
Being busy at midlife can have a profoundly different meaning, if you are willing to be thankful, and open-minded. Many things can, and do, overwhelm us. Right?
Laughing can be good medicine in managing (not eliminating) stress. And just the other day, a friend and I were reminiscing about some funny moments in our lives that illustrate how we’ve dealt with stress.
Perhaps seven years ago, when our son was two, while Family was staying with us for the year-end holidays, I was on the floor with our son. We weren’t doing anything important. Just hanging out really.
The phone rings and I don’t flinch a muscle. One of the visiting family members was in their 70’s. They were taught, when the phone rings, you answer it – it’s the lifeline to the world.
They said, “Aren’t you going to answer the phone?”
“No, I’m busy”, I replied sincerely.
“But you aren’t doing anything”, they challenged.
“That’s right. I’m busy doing nothing”, I said, smiling, staring at my son.
Sometimes, being a midlife slacker can be the most important part of your day.