Well, it looks like Mother Nature has shrugged off the cold shoulder treatment, at least for now. Hey, we'll take it! Even if it only lasts a few days, it's a welcome reprieve!
The days are starting to show the first small signs of yawning and stretching, warming up to the idea of lasting more than 8 or 9 hours at a time. Yay!
Pretty soon it will be time to shed the heavy sweaters and fleece-lined leggings and begin the rituals that are the true signs of the warmth on the way. It will be time again to take up the ancient ritual of the shaving of the legs without waiting until it's braid worthy. Gone until next winter, will be the luxury of blaming bad hair days on the necessity of wearing a toque (wool hat to the non-Canucks). Gone, for another year, will be the drippy goodness of the "rink burger."
Although we may not be drenched in Spring's splendor quite yet, I can almost taste it from here.
It never ceases to amaze me how the cliché of time speeding up as you get older rings so true. It seems like a blink ago our girls were just little. Now they are getting married, becoming parents, buying condos, and carving out pretty fantastic lives for themselves.
Crazy.
Now, because the majority of the years I've spent on this planet have been spent caring for children, my own, and ton of others, a few new and nervous parents have asked for a bit of advice now and again.
The common thread seems to be fear. They are scared they will be too lenient, afraid they will be too strict, too complimentary, too critical, too focused on their careers, too focused on the child, too, too too.........
They are afraid their child won't be the athlete/scholar/cheerleader/prom queen they hoped for them. Or they are afraid they will.
They are afraid their child will have no friends, or too many friends, or the wrong friends.
They are afraid their child won't be well rounded enough, so they have them running from school to gymnastics to hockey, to piano lessons and back again.
They are afraid their children will hate them if they set any kind of boundaries, so they set none.
When I am asked, this is my advice. Now, I am not, nor will I ever claim to be an expert. I have no doctorate, or degree. I am just someone who has spent a crazy amount of time with kids.
If you parent without ego or fear.... If you parent without the noise of what everyone else is doing or saying.....if you parent with the goal of raising a caring, loving adult who has the ability to empathize, sympathize and the desire to help others...... If you discipline out of love and never anger.....and realize very early on that nobody belongs in a neat little box with a label.....
If you allow them to accept the consequences of their decisions.. small when they are small, bigger when they are bigger...both the good and the bad......if you allow them to fall so they can discover the strength within themselves to get back up.......if you can be their soft, safe place without being their escape from adulthood....if you, everyday, strive to be the kind of person you would like your child to grow up to be.......
Perfect parents don't exist, nor do perfect kids. Parenting is messy.
If you parent without ego or fear...you. can't. screw. it. up.
(Dismounting soapbox in my usual ninja style)
So this past week kind of sped by. Busy at the shop, service calls out of the shop, dealing with insurance people, accountant stuff, ordering stuff, and stuff and stuff........
Then, Bang! It's Friday!
The reason these ramblings are surfing the information highway a little earlier than normal is that we are taking off to Regina tomorrow. We are taking advantage of the fact we have an RV appliance seminar/class on Monday, and are gonna make a mini-vacation out of it. Hey, it ain't Mexico, but I'll take it! We'll have to wait and see what kind of shenanigans we can get into! (hehehehehehehe)
The rest of next week will be spent making up for the time lost going to the seminar, and getting a few more smaller jobs done.
I'm also hoping to steal some time to work on writing....
Well, folks that about does it, until next time..........
May you feel powerful, confident and strong in everything you do.
May you get ever closer to becoming your best you.
May you take the stance of a super hero, when in doubt, even if only in your mind's eye.
May you have your "phone booth" moment, close your eyes, in the wind, both you hair and cape fly.
May you tackle every challenge like it was the source of your arch enemy's strength.
May you remember the battle isn't won on the first page, sometimes it's the ninth or tenth.
May you engage in the battles, winning, sentencing bad guys to a life on the lam.
May you defeat every challenge, with your oversized, colourful thought bubbles full of POW and BAM!
My grandson is really getting into comic books....nuff said.
Until next time!
www.margyreidbooks.com
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